Læknaneminn - 01.04.1997, Page 122

Peter Duesberg and David Rasnick
1994, there was still not a single AIDS case in this
group of 918 HlV-positive homosexuals (J. Wells,
London, personal communication).
Another “good example that medicines hurt more
than they help is the story of Roger Cobb, co-chairman
of the consumer caucus for the Commission on AIDS
Care, Service and Treatment for Philadelphia and nine
surrounding counties. ‘Sixty days after I started sub-
stance abuse treatment, I learned that I was HIV-posi-
tive,’ recalls Cobb, who had used crack and cocaine,
among a smorgasbord of other drugs, for more than 21
years. A little while later I started treatment with AZT
for about 14 months.’ It was during this time that he
developed what he calls ‘the look.’ ‘I had the sunken
face, the ashy skin; I lost weight - everything. Against
my doctor’s advice, I decided AZT was not for me, so
I decided to try something else.’ And ‘the look’? ‘The
look is fabulous now,’ says the 40-year-old, who is
working on his master’s degree in social work. ‘I’m back
to me’” 320.
4) Recreational drug users. The T-cells of 29% of
1,020 HlV-positive male homosexuals and intravenous
drug users in a clinical trial even increased over 2 years
321. These HlV-positives belonged to the placebo arm
of an AZT trial for AIDS prevention and thus were not
treated by AZT. It is probable that under clinical sur-
veillance the 29% whose T-cells increased, despite HIV,
have given up or reduced immunosuppressive recre-
ational drug use in the hope that AZT would prevent
AIDS (see 4.2).
5) AIDS babies, born to drug-addicted mothers, recov-
er. HlV-positive babies, born to mothers who were
intravenous drug users during pregnancy, provide the
best controlled examples for the prediction that termi-
nation of recreational drug use prevents, or cures AIDS
- despite the presence of HIV. For example, Blanche
et al. have observed for three years 71 HlV-positive
newborns who had shared intravenous drugs with their
mothers prior to birth. After three years, 61 of these
HlV-positive children were healthy, although some had
developed “intermittent” diseases from which they had
recovered during their first 18 months. Contrary to
the HIV hypothesis, the T-cells of these children
increased after birth from low to normal Ievels -
despite the presence of HIV.
Only 10 of these children developed encephalopathy
and other AIDS-defining diseases of which 9 died dur-
ing their first 18 months of life. The study points out
that the baby’s risk of developing AIDS was related
"directly with the severity of the disease in the mother
at the time of delivery”.
The potential recovery of babies frorn congenital
AIDS diseases acquired as a result of maternal drug use
was apparently impaired by iatrogenic intoxication
with AZT and other anti-AIDS drugs, "prophylactic
treatment [with] ... sulfamethoxazale and zidovudine
[AZT] was started earlier and was more frequent
among the children born to mothers with class IV dis-
ease (AIDS)” 322. Based on the severity of their symp-
toms about 60% of the children were treated prophy-
lactically with AZT “for at least one month”, and 50%
were treated with sulfa-drugs 322.
A very similar picture emerges from a collaborative
European study of HlV-positive newborns 323. The
study reports that over 60% of congenitally-infected
children were healthy at 6 years after birth - although
many had experienced transient AIDS diseases, such as
pneumonia, bacterial infections, candidiasis and cryp-
tosporidial infection during the first year after birth.
About 20% of the HlV-positive children had died or
developed long-term AIDS during the first year after
birth, and another 20% during the second and third
years - and that is exactly the percentage that was
"treated with zidovudine [AZT]”, 10% before 6
months of age and 40% by 4 years 323.
Although this study does not even mention the
health and health risks of the mothers, previous reports
from the European Collaborative Study group have
documented that ”nearly all children were born to
mothers who are intravenous drug users” 26,231. In
1991, the European Collaborative Study group report-
ed that 80% of the children with pediatric AIDS were
born to mothers who were intravenous drug users 232.
The 1991-study further points out that ”children with
drug withdrawal symptoms” were most likely to devel-
op diseases, and that children with no withdrawal
symptoms but ”whose mothers had used recreational
drugs in the final 6 months of pregnancy were inter-
mediate” in their risk to develop diseases 232.
An American study reports that during the first 18
months after birth a group of HlV-positive babies
lagged on average behind a control group of HlV-free
infants in all developmental parameters 20S. But the
study also reports intravenous and other drug use by
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