Question:

Hello and thank you in advance for your help and information.

A very close friend of mine (who is HIV positive) has recently been introduced and is working with a "Wellness Expert" through his job. As a result of the encouragement of the Holistic Guru, my friend has decided to quit taking his HIV meds based on information presented by the guru which I will copy to you.(below)

The self help expert has basically presented several questions to create doubt which I would like some help in refuting. Here they are and where can I get information and studies to disprove these statements?

There is no proof or studies that HIV causes AIDS.
There is no proof that medication keeps people from getting sick.
People are mostly dying from the medications and not from HIV.
People survive without taking medication and never develop AIDs.
There have been limited and nonscientific studies of the people who survive long term without developing AIDS because the industry doesn't want the information out there.
The medications do more harm than good and the medical industry just pushes them for capital gain.

The card read as follows:
Question Authority
QUESTION AIDS
The # 1 cause of death among those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS is LIVER FAILURE from taking pharmaceuticals
Why would you trust the pharmaceuticals industry? DO RESEARCH - ASK QUESTIONS

Answer provided by:

Peter Shalit, M.D.
Internal Medicine

Dear Friend,

HIV is indeed the cause of AIDS. You ask where you can get information and studies to disprove the statements of the AIDS denialists. The best article can be found at the following URL:
http://www.sfaf.org/treatment/beta/b43/b43hiv_causes.html

The statements quoted to your close friend are just plain incorrect. It is unfortunate but true that there are a small and vocal group of "AIDS denialists" that question the connection between the virus and the fatal disease. The one good thing about them is that they make us question our assumptions and look at the evidence. But the evidence is irrefutable.

To see some recent news about a leading AIDS denialist, see the following article:
http://www.aegis.org/news/lt/2005/LT050909.html

I hope this information is helpful in educating your close friend.

Respectfully,

Peter Shalit, MD

051011
ASKD051009

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