Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Bay Area Reporter - July 23, 1999
Liz Highleyman
An ongoing debate began last December when Michael Nitsche of Berlin challenged Dr. Peter Duesberg, the best known proponent of the idea that HIV does not cause AIDS, to provide evidence that HIV does indeed exist. Duesberg, a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley who has been working with retroviruses for some 30 years, believes that AIDS is caused by recreational drug use and anti-HIV drugs. Duesberg is currently working in Berlin on research regarding retroviruses and cancer. The exchange between Nitsche and Duesberg has transpired mostly over e-mail; Nitsche has published his open letters and Duesberg's replies on his website (http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~myny/duesberg-brief.htm).
While Duesberg does not believe that HIV causes the set of illness that have been grouped together under than name "AIDS," he does believe that HIV exists. Duesberg has laid out his arguments in a pair of articles appearing in the magazine Continuum in July 1996 and February 1997. His primary argument is based on the isolation and photography of a consistent 9150 nucleotide genetic sequence in laboratory samples from people with AIDS. He also notes that people whose samples contain HIV also consistently contain antibodies against HIV. Nitsche contends that no consistent viral genome for HIV or any other retrovirus has been properly identified. Nitsche's position echoes that of several other researchers, notably Dr. Eleni Papadopulos of Perth, Australia and Dr. Stefan Lanka of Germany.
Since December, the debate has continued to generate increasing heat but little light, as neither the "HIV esistentialists" nor those who deny the existence of HIV have budged from their initial positions.
Nitsche's most recent open letter, dated June 19, delved into personal accusations. Nitsche implies that Duesberg will not admit that HIV does not exist -- even though he knows better -- because, as a retrovirologist, Duesberg must defend the existence of his object of study. Ironically, this is similar to the accusations made by many AIDS dissidents that mainstream researchers, physicians, AIDS service providers, pharmaceutical companies, and the federal government defend the theory that HIV causes AIDS because accepting that it does not would put them out of a job.
Nitsche contends that the denial of the existence of HIV is necessary to lay to rest once and for all the idea that HIV is related to the "artificial diagnosis" of AIDS. In his June 19 letter, Nitsche asks Duesberg, "Can you assume responsibility that [the HIV antibody] test gives sentences of death everyday and everywhere in the world even though it is easy to demonstrate that it has nothing at all to do with any virus or antibodies against it?"
For his part, Duesberg appears to have grown weary of the debate; his sole reply to Nitsche's multi-page missive was a quote from Winston Smith, a character is George Orwell's novel 1984: "What can you do against the lunatic à who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?"
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