United Press International - August 21, 2007

IOWA CITY, Iowa, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- The Internet is being used to circulate false ideas about HIV/AIDS that could impact public health, U.S. researchers said.

Tara Smith of the University of Iowa College of Public Health and Steven Novella of Yale University School of Medicine said "HIV denialists" reject the consensus of the scientific community that HIV is the cause of AIDS by either denigrating the notion of scientific authority in general or by arguing that the mainstream HIV community is intellectually compromised.

Those who believe the false information spread by HIV denialists could end up putting themselves at risk of HIV infection by abandoning safe sex, while those who are already infected could end up seeking unproven, ineffective remedies, the researchers suggested in a policy paper published in PLoS Medicine.

"The effect of denial groups on public perception of HIV infection is an area ripe for careful research, as this denial can have lethal consequences," the researchers said in a statement.

Ref: Tara C. Smith, Steven P. Novella, HIV Denial in the Internet Era, PLoS Med 2007 Aug 21,4(8): e256 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0040256

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