AEGiS-BKREV: Positively False: Exposing the Myths Around HIV and AIDS

(BKREV) Positively False: Exposing the Myths Around HIV and AIDS

I. B. Tauris & Co./St Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010. 277p., illus., bibliog, index. ISBN 1-86064-333-7. $29.95.
Joan Shenton. 1998.

Although very much in the minority, Joan Shenton does not buy into the hypothesis: "HIV is an infection. HIV leads to AIDS. AIDS kills." In this book she introduces scientists who argue that HIV has never been isolated and "that the HIV test is simply picking up proteins said to be specific to the virus, but which reside in all of us and happen to become raised when the body's immune system is compromised for other reasons." Research has been driven by pharmaceutical companies anxious to protect their investments in drug treatments like AZT. "Worse still, these combined interests have succeeded in blocking off research in other directions."

She makes statements that the new protease inhibitors do not work. Unfortunately, she does not explain to the reader that they do not work if one does not keep a regimen of taking the cocktail dosages. Too many people suddenly feel good and stop taking the drug, resulting in a relapse that cannot be overcome with the previous drugs. A new regimen has to be developed which is not always possible. This reviewer has seen too many individuals who have improved their health through these cocktails to belie ve that they do not do any good. As with any drug treatment, one has to look at all of the other conditions of the individual and above all, you have to consider how the individual works to take his or her medicines faithfully, every time, and provide th e right nutrition for the medications to work. It appears that this book looks at all of the things that go wrong rather than those that go right. Her final statement sums up her belief--"There has been no heterosexual pandemic; AIDS has remained firmly locked into the high risk groups; AIDS has not behaved like a sexually transmitted disease should and no cure for AIDS has been found." My response is why are so many teenagers testing positive (all of which are not gay or drug users) and why is it not a sexually transmitted disease when it can be transmitted through sexual intercourse? No, there is no cure, but there is no cure for many diseases--cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc.

An interesting book that earns its way into academic libraries.

Keywords: Social Aspects; AZT; Africa; Haiti

Copyright (c) 1999 - Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Reviews may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting, redistribution , or translation, address requests to H. Robert Malinowsky, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, PO Box 8198, Chicago, IL 60680 or electronically to hrm@uic.edu.
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Copyright © 1999 - The University of Illinois at Chicago. All materials in the journal are subject to copyright by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting, redistribution, or translation, address requests to H. Robert Malinowsky, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, PO Box 8198, Chicago, IL 60680 or electronically to hrm@uic.edu.

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