strubenuff

My friend sent me this the other day...

"If there is evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there should be scientific documents which either singly or collectively demonstrate that fact, at least with a high probability. There is no such document."

-Dr. Kary Mullis, Biochemist, 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Anyone familiar with the doctor care to shed some light for me?

Mageth

IDSA - Evidence that HIV causes AIDS

BTW, I did a google search on "Dr. Kary Mullis" and got tons of hits.

strubenuff

And I myself seem a bit confused on what AIDS actually is..is it having HIV and the stated 29 other dieases, and/or cd4/viral count below 200, and/or one as someone with HIV who shows symtoms, and then the less informed sometimes consider one wiht HIV who shows no symptoms but who will "certainly die in 5-10 years of a common cold"? Seems the cdc disagrees with the international community disagrees with what I remember from school.

livius drusus

This thread should answer many of your questions: The Myth of AIDS?

strubenuff

Dr. Mullis recanted? Can anyone provide a site stating this?

BTW, thanks for the link

MortalWombat

He professes to "believe in astrology, to have been rescued from a fatal accident by a person travelling in an astral plane, and to have conversed with an alien disguised as a raccoon." Taken from here. Take from this whatever you will.

glow_worm

Natural history of the infection in an individual (its a continuum, where AIDS is the most severe form & final stage of the HIV infection):

viral transmission (2-3 weeks) => acute retroviral syndrome (2-3 weeks) => recovery/seroconversion => asymptomatic chronic HIV infection (8 yrs average) => symptomatic HIV/AIDS defining complications (avg. 1.3 yrs) => death

Diagnosis of HIV based on positive titer for the virus (occurs about 2-4 weeks after transmission). HIV destroys the immune system (the T-cells, which affects both arms of the immune system eventually, the humoral and cell-mediated branches), and gradually the infected individual shows characteristic conditions that indicate AIDS. Basically, viruses/fungi/bacteria present in the body are no longer suppressed by the immune system, since the immune system is falling apart. Also, the body can no longer fight off malignancies. Not all opportunistic infections are present in every individual:

invasive cervical cancer, candidiasis of esophagus/trachea/bronchi/lungs (thrush, a fungus), coccidioidomycosis, cryptococcosis, cryptosporidiosis, CMV of many organs, herpes simplex, histoplasmosis, HIV-associated dementia, HIV-associated wasting (weight loss, diarrhea, weakness, fever), Isosoporiasis, Kaposi's sarcoma, Mycobacterium, pneumonia, salmonella, toxoplasmosis.

In essence, AIDS is defined by both the CD4 count and clinical findings (described above).