United Press International - Saturday, 1 July 2000
Michael Smith, UPI Science News

"It is unfortunate that a few vocal people continue to deny the evidence," says the so-called "Durban Declaration," to be published July 6 in the journal Nature. "This position will cost countless lives."

"The evidence that AIDS is caused by HIV-1 and HIV-2 is clear-cut, exhaustive and unambiguous, meeting the highest standards of science," the declaration said. It goes on to say that "HIV is the enemy" and that "research, not myths" is needed to find better treatments, prevention methods and possibly cures.

The unprecedented declaration comes on the eve of the 13th International AIDS Conference, to be held in the South African city of Durban. It also comes as a panel on the causes of AIDS, set up by South African President Thabo Mbeki, prepares to reconvene next week. Mbeki has stunned the world by questioning the role of HIV in AIDS.

A press officer at the South African embassy in Washington said it is unlikely Mbeki will back off in the face of the declaration.

"I wouldn't think that such a document would change the government's position," Vicky Maharaj said.

But members of the committee that organized the declaration said they hope it will make Mbeki change his mind.

"I think a statement by 5,000 eminent scientists, saying this is a non-issue, would make it untenable politically for any leader of a major county to even question the need to address their (HIV) epidemic," said Michael Saag, a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The latest figures from the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), released June 27, show that about 4.2 million South Africans-or about one in five-are infected with HIV.

In the latest report on the epidemic, UNAIDS said 34.3 million people around the world are now infected with the virus that causes AIDS and "barring a miracle," most of them will die within the next 10 years.

"There's overwhelming evidence that HIV causes AIDS," Saag said, "so for us to be side-tracked in what is the worst pandemic in the history of mankind ... is just wasteful.... With every second that ticks by, more lives are lost."

Saag compared the AIDS epidemic to the Holocaust, which took the lives of more than 10 million people in Europe during World War II. Noting that 5.2 million people were newly infected with HIV last year, he said: "What kind of impact is that having on our global community?"

Saag, who is a founding member of the organizing committee, said the declaration arose because people working to battle the AIDS epidemic have "really had it with this waste of time." He characterized the Mbeki panel, which has equal numbers of mainstream and minority scientists, as a "sideshow circus" that will not produce anythiung useful.

The declaration says the data that lead scientists to conclude that HIV causes AIDS, "fulfill exactly the same criteria as for other viral diseases, such as polio, measles and smallpox."

Specifically, the document says:

* People with AIDS are infected with HIV, regardless of where they live.

* Without treatment, people infected with HIV will show signs of AIDS within 5 to 10 years.

* People who get HIV-tainted blood products develop AIDS, while those who get clean blood do not.

* Drugs that prevent HIV from reproducing in a lab setting also slow the progression to AIDS in people infected with HIV. Such drugs also reduce the amount of virus found in the systems of infected people.
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