Letters
Harper�s Magazine�
666 Broadway
New
York, NY�
10012
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By e-mail: [email protected]
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Despite the plethora of evidence to the contrary, the notion
that HIV does not cause AIDS continues to find a wide audience�thanks, in part,
to the writing of Celia Farber�with potential negative impact on HIV-infected
individuals and on public health efforts to control the epidemic.� For years, Ms. Farber has been spinning
yarn of half-truths, bent on proving that antiretroviral therapy is a big, fat,
greed-driven lie that has needlessly left people living with this phantom
disease victimized and brutalized.�
What she consistently fails to report are the reams of data indicating
that such treatment has not only had a profound effect on the length and quality
of HIV-positive people�s lives, but has also greatly reduced mother-to-child
transmission rates throughout the world.
We do not overlook the side effects some people face. Those
in clinical trials willingly offered up the last remnants of their precious
health and lives�the ultimate sacrifice�in pursuit of therapies to save
themselves and others. The commitment of these brave study volunteers, including
those participating in the HIVNET 012 trial, has prolonged the lives of many and
continues to bear fruit, albeit sometimes bitter.
The end result of Ms. Farber�s agenda couldn�t be
clearer.� People may be dissuaded
from being tested for HIV, or they may discount the threat of HIV and continue
to engage in risky sexual behavior and needle sharing. If public health messages
on HIV prevention are diluted by the misconception that HIV is not responsible
for AIDS, otherwise preventable cases of HIV infection and AIDS may occur,
adding to the global tragedy of the epidemic.
Decades of research concludes that AIDS is characterized by
the progressive loss of the CD4+ cells�a subset of disease-fighting white blood
cells�leading to severe immunosuppression and opportunistic complications that
rarely occur in persons with intact immune function. Although the precise
mechanisms leading to the destruction of the immune system have not been fully
delineated, abundant epidemiologic, virologic, and immunologic data support the
conclusion that infection with HIV is the underlying cause of AIDS.
HIV and AIDS have been repeatedly linked in time, place and
population group; the appearance of HIV in the blood supply has preceded or
coincided with the occurrence of AIDS cases in every country and region where
AIDS has been noted.� Individuals as
different as gay/bisexual men, elderly transfusion recipients, married women,
injection drug-users, and infants have all developed AIDS with only one common
denominator: infection with HIV. Laboratory workers accidentally exposed to
highly concentrated HIV and health care workers exposed to HIV-infected blood
have developed immunosuppression and AIDS with no other risk factor for immune
dysfunction (which, evidently, permitted the conclusion that HIV was the cause
of AIDS in accordance with Koch�s postulates).� Researchers also have demonstrated a
correlation between the amount of HIV in the body and progression of the
aberrant immunologic processes seen in people with AIDS.�
ATAC is a national coalition of AIDS activists, many living
with HIV/AIDS, working together to end the AIDS epidemic by advancing research
on HIV/AIDS.
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Respectfully submitted,
Tim Horn for the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition
(ATAC)