25 years after the first AIDS diagnosis (or just about)

[Bassic]

Let us bask in ignorance:


http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/

I am at a loss for words. :eyes:

[Avalux]

1. That site should be shut down for pandering dangerous misinformation.

They're right about one thing - HIV doesn't cause AIDS. HIV slowly destroys the immune system (T-cells) and without treatment, over time, the body is no longer able to defend itself against a host of diseases. This is what we call AIDS; a syndrome that is the result of a compromised immune system.

This kind of crap makes me very angry - I work in the trenches every day and see first hand what HIV can do.

[Bassic]

2. Agreed.

I hate it when idiots like these try to push lies about a virus such as this one. Who the hell does it help?

[Avalux]

3. The site hasn't been updated since 2003 -

so that's a good thing and no, I can't imagine why lies like these are pushed. A bit of history here - the group mentioned on this site formed its 'hypothesis' in 1991 and submitted a letter to Science magazine in 1995. As of that time, we were just beginning to use the test that measures viral particles in the bloodstream (viral load) and have since developed two tests that measure drug resistance of a person's particular virus - one actually looks at the markers on the virus and the other measures drug activity in the presence of the virus (in a test tube).

Where once this site may have been believable, it's clear now their 'hypothesis' has become absurd due to medical advancements.

[Bassic]

5. Sadly, that clarity is sure to espace a few people who may stumble

upon this. This thing is really sad.

[ismnotwasm]

4. Talk about a morning WTF moment

Just thinking about the times I've held the hand of someone dying from AIDS. Or that time I took a AIDS patient, for the last time out of the hospital to get in into the cabulance. He wouldn't be returning. It was his last trip to the hospital. He was going home on hospice. He knew, and every moment, every detail, was pure clarity, even my silly silver dolphin ring I've worn for years--he noticed, and it had meaning to him. One of the most profound experiences of my life.

I hate assholes like this. They degrade the memory of those I've lost. That we've all lost.

[Liberal Veteran]

6. Don't be TOO hard on them.

Remember, a lot of the stuff you see from the denialists originally came from a time when things were a lot more desperate and people wanted to believe this virus we knew so little about wasn't going to kill them.

There are stories about people who have bought into their nonsense about HIV doesn't cause AIDS. They either died or wised up.

A couple of the people responsible for taking over ACTUP SF went around telling people that AIDS is OVER and disrupting health seminars and stuff. Both of them are dead. One died of "stress" at the age 37 and another died of CMV (an opportunistic infection) at 42.

But others see the light when they start getting sick from the virus that think doesn't cause AIDS.

People do and cling to stupid things when they are scared. Of course, at this point, the majority of their adherents are engaging in willful ignorance. And they do piss me off to no small end, but I prefer to beat them senseless with facts that rebute their half-truths and psuedoscientific dogma.

[nealmhughes]

7. HIV-AIDS denialists are refuting basic empirical evidence.

We know that everyone who has AIDS is HIV positive. We know that isolated HIV will destroy CD-4 cells in vitro. We know that HAART will reduce the HIV count to nondetectable from amazingly high levels and the CD-4 counts will trend towards "normal". Unfortunately, the HIV drop is more or less geometric while the CD 4 restoration rate is arithmetic.
We know that HIV will make a person in severe affection turn into a babbling idiot open to opportunistic infections likely to kill one. When I write "We," I mean myself and my physicians at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
From an HIV level of 150,000 and a CD4 count of 85 and early stage dementia, loss of 25 pounds and severe disconnect to reality in the late Fall of 1984 to regaining my weight, no more dementia, but some shortterm memory loss, back to my fighting weight and no detectsable HIV level and a CD4 count of over 300 in less than a year's worth of HAART.
I was poised on the edge of the volcano that leads to Hell. I slid down it and confronted the Three-Headed Dog Cerebus. His three heads are named Confusion, Despair and Death. I spat in all six eyes and clawed my way back out of the crater and am on my way back onto level ground. HIV-denialists, I will cry at your funerals. I want to live. I was just 45 a month ago...and while my career is ruined and probably never to be regained, I have had a stroke that makes me a one-armed leper, and have no money to my name -- I have my family and my real friends and my dogs and Nature...all thanks to modern medical science and my own stubborness and refusal to submit. I will no longe react, but act. I will take my 3 pills a day and type with my left hand and I will be a witness, not a bitter person cowering in the corner wondering "Why me?" or claiming "Conspiracy!"

[Avalux]

8. Congratulations.

I am happy to hear you are doing well on HAART therapy and have reached a point of stability. There's no reason why you can't continue on this path for a very long time to come. It's almost ironic that we've shifted focus to heart disease in those who are on HAART therapy when we never even considered it before.

You might be interested to know I am currently involved in development of an integrase inhibitor which is showing a lot of promise. We are giving it to individuals who are very HAART experienced, failed at least 2 PIs and demonstrate resistance in all drug classes. We have seen very significant drops in viral load (from 10-100K to undetectable) after just 2 weeks of integrase in combination with HAART.

I wish you all the best - take care. :hug:

[nealmhughes]

9. Intriguing!

I shall have to do some research on that. That rapid drop seems astonishing to me! Thanks for the words of support. I thank you, my mother thanks you, and my little dog Bruno, too!