THE UNFOLDING OF EVENTS IN AIDS RESEARCH

THE UNFOLDING OF EVENTS IN AIDS RESEARCH

As this book was being written, a group of scientists in AIDS research from Europe and America gathered in Holland in May of 1992 to begin a movement against the established and protected thinking on AIDS as a viral disease. As reported in the London Sunday Times of 26 April 1992, two of the most interesting members of this group were Professor Luc Montagnier from France and Professor Duesberg from America.

Professor Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute is the original discoverer of the virus that was later labeled as HTV. This French professor isolated the claimed virus that was supposed to have inhibited the immune system. He sent samples of the virus to Robert Gallo in America, who was also working on a method for isolation and testing of an AIDS virus in the body. Dr. Gallo later applied for a patent on a test kit. The French government started legal proceedings to claim its rights for the discovery of the virus. Eventually and after much legal hassle, the two parties agreed to share a portion of the proceeds from the marketing of the test kit. The rest of the proceeds go to further research of AIDS. But the French would not remain quiet and forced further investigations into the allegations of scientific impropriety. After a more thorough scrutiny, it has now been conceded that Dr. Gallo had initially used the French sample for his patent.

Professor Montagnier seems to have reversed his original views and now claims the virus not to be of primary importance in AIDS. The newspaper interview indicates that the professor now accepts the possibility of AIDS having other causes. He seems to acknowledge the possible existence of AIDS even without the presence of HIV. The professor must have come across compelling arguments that deny HIV as the culprit and the single cause of all the group of diseases classified under AIDS. A drastic change has taken place in Professor Montagnier's thinking.

Professor Duesberg, who had researched the actual composition of the virusat the same time as others were believing in its disease-producing propertieshad announced the virus incapable of causing AIDS. There were many debates, but his arguments did not cut any ice with the established group busy with AIDS viral research in America and in Europe. He could not offer an alternative scientific explanation on the cause of the diseases grouped together under AIDS other than saying the disease is not caused by a virus. The researchers in this field were looking for plausible scientific ideas to find a solution to the problem. A statement to the effect that AIDS is not a viral disease was not enough. Scientific reasons which point in another direction should have accompanied the negation of HIV as the cause of the disease.

I wrote to Dr. Manfred Eigen, a most eminent DNA research scientist from Max-Planck Institute in Germany, on 25 September 1989, and in defense of Duesberg sent him two of my articles presenting most of the views that were published in the Foundation's Special AIDS Issue. Dr. Eigen had published an account of discussions between AIDS virus advocates and Duesberg in Natur Weissenschafen. It seems Dr. Eigen was not convinced by Professor Duesberg's views and had taken the side of the opposition. A few months later, Dr. Eigen sent me a letter that showed he now realized another plausible scientific view on the cause of AIDS does exist.

Now, all of a sudden in 1992, a new surge of activity with an alternative view of AIDS had gathered momentum with both Professors Montagnier and Duesberg as leaders in the field.

In 1989,1 had sent these researchers a copy of our Special AIDS Issue of Science In Medicine Simplified (SMS) from the Foundation for the Simple in Medicine (references 74 and 75), in the same way the Foundation freely shares its views with most top researchers (a copy of the letter to Manfred Eigen was also sent to Professor Duesberg). This special AIDS volume was also sent to many medical libraries at universities engaged in AIDS research. The detailed articles presented scientific explanations from which a synopsis has been given in the preceding paragraphs.

In my article on the neurotransmitter histamine, first presented briefly at the 3rd Interscience World Conference on Inflammation in 1989, and later published in 1990,1 also explained the immune suppressive actions of many of the chemical agents that are generated as a result of stress in the human body. In this extensively distributed article, I discussed some aspects of AIDS as a severe stress-induced 'system disturbance,' opposing the current view that it is caused by a single particle, a virus.

This issue of SMS was also extensively distributed. Copies of the 1989 Special AIDS Issue and 1990 issue of SMS were also sent to Professor Philippe Lazar, the Director General of IINSERM in France. INSERM is the French equivalent of the NIH in America. He was asked to make the information contained in these issues of SMS available to other interested scientists at INSERM.

My research was progressing at the same time as new information on the critical roles of cysteine in the manufacture of some DNA materials became available and published. It became completely clear and obvious to me that AIDS was a metabolic disorder, and the DNA/RNA fragments classified as the different viruses of AIDS were themselves a product of cysteine shortage in the body.

With infinitely more detail than has been presented in this section, my most recent article, 'AIDS: The Dead-End of Virus Etiology' was published in the 1991 issue of SMS and distributed to many other scientists engaged in this field of research.

It is a moral obligation of any dedicated scientist to share his or her new information with others engaged in the research of a common topic, even before the subject is presented in scientific journals. It is also a moral obligation of those who receive the information to give credit to the person who has generated and shared the information.

A news headline in Le Monde of 9 August 1991 reflected a heated fight between Bruno Durieux, the Minister of Health of France and Professor Albert German, President of the National Academy of Pharmacy of France. The minister had demanded the dismissal of the professor. The professor had, in an address, given the opinion that AIDS is caused as a result of a particular life style. The professor's opinion had become a hot issue among the different social groups. Thus the wrath of the minister and the demand for his dismissal. No occasion lends itself better to the introduction of an explosive opinion than adding it as fuel to an already established quarrel. The letter printed in the next page was sent to M. Bruno Durieux, Minister of Health of France, with a copy to Professor German.