no science should not give up to find a vaccine for aids.so much time has been wasted because of the prejudice of politicians and religous people like the pope.

HIV is harmless and does not cause AIDS. The HIV-AIDS industry is one of the biggest scams of our time and the people propagating this lunacy should be locked up.

Visit one of the many re thinking aids sites or read some Duesberg.

I know a lot of money is spent on HIV/AIDS research every year, but I did not realize that ONE research lab spent $500 million last year alone! Does it not seem a little ridiculous that so much money is spent on researching a vaccination for a disease that can be almost entirely prevented through lifestyle?

You might look a Sangamo(SGMO).

They have something they call a "zinc finger" that when injected in an animal gave an immunity to AIDS.

Wow, I have to say this is the most close-minded and ignorant group of people I have heard in a long time. If it were Europe, instead of Africa suffering the type of epidemic it is now, do you think you people would being saying this? I think you all need to wake up and get your heads out of your ..... Abstinence has done nothing to stop the spread of this disease and the only real help is education and research. Should we then give up on cancer, and every other disease we don't have cures for? Jesus, you people are a joke.

There is always diamond in the rough. There are companies like Geovax that are progressing in the right direction. Please do not discredit and make a generic statement just because the scientist from the Billion dollar companies say so.

They should test it on the anti-vivisectionists. Why put innocent monkeys at risk?

AIDS COULD BE GONE in one generation from nothing other than self-control and protection. No one wakes up with AIDS without having done something to contract it.

HOWEVER, people do wake up with cancer and die within 3 months. Spending so much money on a nearly 100% avoidable disease is ridiculous.

What about cures for blindness? Deafness? Breast cancer?

Abstinence works if it is actually practiced, why do you think so many priests in America molested little boys and girls, or why most schools in America who teach abstinence have the highest pregnancy rates? You can't simply shelter people in a cage of so-called morality. You must teach them the TRUTH and how the world WORKS. Education is the only answer. I suggest you stop bashing homosexuals and work on your own morals. The Bible is not the answer.

Steve -

I hate to break it to you but science has trouble curing nearly all viruses, why do you thin kwe can't cure the common cold? Yes the drugs harm patients livers, etc. but they have bewen PROVEN to prolong the lifespan of infected patients by DECADES I'm not quite sure where you get your information but I suggest you look at a wikipedia page or something, because its probably more accurate that the garbage you dream up...

Peter Duesberg, that's who Michael. Yeah, say what you want but like the so called HIV virus, cancer pans the same track and guess who is now giving scientists a new view on cancer? Yep, Peter Duesberg.

What ever happened to the big scare of heterosexual aids? That lie never came to be. Why? Because they are chasing a ghost virus.

Btw, many people who have gotten off their death meds do fine as well.

aliveandwell.org.

You all run back to Duesberg, one lonely scientist in the world of AIDS research. If HIV didn't lead to AIDS they wouldn't call it HIV/AIDS. I suggest you get your material from more than one source. Furthermore, the big scare is AIDS in general, not homosexual AIDS or heterosexual AIDS because there is NO difference. Is saving a homosexual less important than saving a heterosexual? If it were lies there wouldn't be people in Africa dying by the dozens by this disease you call mythical. I'm not sure what world you live in but I'll let you stay there. I'm here to show there is a rational voice in the world, and you nuts and bigots aren't the only ones monopolizing this forum. There are many other dieases which require our attention, but to drop it from our attention is ludicrous.

FINALLY! So much time and money and tears have been wasted on this subject its ridiculous. We spend more money on AIDS research than on Heart Disease, we keep throwing money at this disease and get no results, just further guilted into spending more money.

More money on a problem where in the USA they fail to acknowledge the bad behavior that spreads the disease the most. Yes in the gay community where your chances of getting HIV and AIDS is far greater, there are individuals who refuse to wear protection with their frequent non monogamous partners, gay or not, this is a recipe perfect for the continuous prolonged spread of HIV in our country. Why would i give money for that?

"...a vaccine would be the most effective way of preventing spread of the virus given the failure of many education programs." Lord Ockham must be turning in his grave. Occam's Razor holds that good science calls for assessing existing precedents and simplest possible solutions. Until the latter part of the 20th Century the prevailing recommendation for preventing syphilis and gonorrhea was washing involved genitals with soap and water. Current "educational programs" for the sake of prevention dwell on abstinence, monogamy, or condom use. The latter requires people to do something before having sex that reduces their opportunities for procreation and pleasure. The only behavioral mode of prevention that does not inhibit fundamental human drives is post-sex washing. But only now, 26 years into this pandemic, are scientists beginning to assess the possibilities of post-sex hygiene. One of these scientists is a Brit: Nigel O'Farrell, D.M. He's the closest the AIDS world comes to having a Lord Ockham. Where is his British fan club?

Helllloooo...Everyone on the streets and the medical field know that by far the majority of HIV/Aids infected people are gays and needle idiots...it is a fact and face it. I worked the mean streets for 23yrs and I know air born is more deadly then any of those two any day of the week. My dad(an Emergency room doctor for 25yrs)said be afraid of Hyp A,B and C then those foolish deseases that gays and drug users fear. Take care of your butt and leave all needles alone...on the weekdays and weekends stay home and take care of the wife...it is the best prevention there is...Oh,by the by...I am an agnostic...surprise.

Letter sent to Prime Minister Gordon Brown requesting electron-micrograph evidence for the existence of HIV.

29th March, 2008

Dear Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Gordon Brown,

I would like to bring your attention to my reward of £50,000 for electron-micrograph (EM) evidence of the existence of HIV.

The non-isolation of HIV was the main theme of a satellite meeting 'HIV-testing; open questions regarding specificity' held at the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva in 1998. The International Forum for Accessible Science (IFAS) hosted this session with a panel of distinguished HIV critics including Professor Gordon Stewart, Professor Etienne de Harven. Ten years on, the isolation of HIV has not been proven.

Contributing to this session was a panel of scientists from Perth, Western Australia, led by biophysicist Eleni Eleopulos who argued that there had been no isolation of HIV according to the scientifically approved standards for retroviral isolation as discussed at the Pasteur Institute in 1973.

At the closing of press session I asked Richard Horton, then editor of The Lancet, and the 12th World AIDS Conference chairman, Dr. Bernard Hirschel: "The current indirect HIV tests and PCR are not sufficient proof that HIV has been isolated. Where is the proof that HIV exists? " None of the perplexed panel answered.

The alleged co-discoverers of HIV Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo agreed that to claim the existence of a new retrovirus the minimum necessary but not sufficient condition is to have electron microscopic (EM) evidence for the isolation (purification) of the putative retroviral particles.

In 1997 Montagnier admitted to the French journalist Djamel Tahi that the material, which in 1983 he claimed to represent purified HIV, did not even have particles with the "morphology typical of retroviruses" and stated: "I repeat we did not purify". Prof. Gallo stated: "You have to purify." Yet when Montagnier was asked if the Gallo group purified 'HIV', he replied: "I don't know if he really purified. I don't believe so." (1)

Dr. Heinz Ludwig Sänger, Emeritus Professor of Molecular Biology and Virology, Max-Planck-Institutes for Biochemy, München stated: "Up to today there is actually no single scientifically really convincing evidence for the existence of HIV. Not even once such a retrovirus has been isolated and purified by the methods of classical virology." (2)

To date there is still no electron micrograph (EM) which shows purification of the putative HIV particles and thus of the existence of a unique, isolated retrovirus. What was wrongly taken to be 'purified HIV' was in fact cellular debris as Hans Gelderblom et al demonstrated in Virology, March 1997. This brings urgently into question the validity, efficacy and legality of all hypothetical HIV testing procedures.

All images of the hypothetical HIV are invariably computerized fictions of virtual virology (often embellished with seductive psychedelic colours) and yet it has never been possible to visualize any HIV retroviral particle by EM. In summary, I request your office, and the Department of Health, obtain EM evidence for the existence of purified HIV particles.

I would like to conclude with a couple of quotes that aptly apply to Gallo and Montagnier:

"The most formidable barrier to the advancement of science is the conventional wisdom of the dominant group."
C. H. Waddington, Geneticist.

"It is a dire example of how a distinguished scholar who has contributed much to the advancement of science, now impedes further progress by his stubborn adherence to a dogma of his own creation."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maximen und Reflexionen, Texstelle 586.

References:
(1) Luc Montagnier, Did Montagnier Discover HIV? Interview with Luc Montagnier, by Djamel Tahi; Continuum, Winter 1997.
(2) Dr. Heinz Ludwig Sänger: Letter to Süddeutsche Zeitung 2000.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Alexander Verney-Elliott,
London WC1N 1PE

Get the government out of funding research entirely.

If people want to continue researching AIDs vaccines, let them. If they want to research something else, let them.

Freedom first.

Oh dear, another thread infested with religious nutters. Duesberg's theories seem to appeal very much to the fundamentalist chrustians and their ilk. Not content with their bogus creationist science, they now seem to want to establish their own brand of medical science, where 'sinful' behaviour is the cause of disease.

Duesberg would have us believe that recreational drug use and sexual promiscuity (particularly the homosexual kind) are the real cause of AIDS, HIV is purely an innocent passenger. Where these things are not particularly in evidence then malnutrition, parasitic infection, and poor sanitation can hold the fort.

The problem with Duesberg's theories is that they do not account for the observed data. Drugs and promiscuity were common in the sixties but AIDS did not even seem to exist. Homosexuality has always been around, but strangely there was no AIDS until the eighties. Duesberg cannot explain why haemophiliacs are a high risk group, nor why Africa is rife with AIDS. With no particular African drug culture and a high heterosexual AIDS count then malnutrition, parasitic infection and poor sanitation must be somehow roped in to fill the gap. The biggest problem is that all of the suggested causes have been around for longer than the AIDS disease itself, most of them far longer.

I remember when AIDS first appeared, sometime round about 1980. Initially, the investigations focused on lifestyle details such as drug use and sexuality but these suggested causes simply did not fit the facts. It is not apparent whether Duesberg is simply a man who cannot admit he is wrong, a man making big bucks out of 'moral majority' nutters, a religious nutter himself, or a combination of all three. What is apparent, is that sooner or later this bunch of cranks are going to get someone killed. Sooner or later, someone who is HIV positive is going to be convinced that it is OK to sleep with someone who is not already infected. Of course the Duesberg crowd will say that they advocated celibacy, so its not their fault. In the real world they will have contributed to an unnecessary death.

Nearly 20 years ago, Dr. Peter Duesberg and around 30 different scientists in the UK and USA, all top experts on retroviruses and infectious diseases, formed the "Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV Hypothesis of AIDS", and tried to convince their colleagues that the whole HIV theory was wrong. They were treated with arrogant contempt, attacks, smears in the press, and finally, censorship in both scientific journals and newspapers, who took all their information from the well-funded "AIDS Groups" and research institutions dedicated to the infectious HIV hypothesis. Today, the terms "HIV-AIDS" are spoken like a mantra, as if there is no difference between the clinical sickness AIDS, and the failed hypothesis about its causation, HIV. It is today obvious, that a fraud and sham-theory has been foisted upon the pubiic, by both disreputable scientists AND conniving, arrogant journalists and their editors, all of whom have made a muck of things. It is worse than the old pellegra "epidemic" (a disease later clarified as caused by a vitamin deficiency, not by infectious organisms), and similar examples from the history of medicine. The "HIV" tests are bogus, the "medicines" given to treat the disorder often causes symptoms indistinguishable from clinical AIDS (so you cannot tell if you suffer from side-effects from toxic meds, or from lethal HIV), and the best advice for the majority of AIDS cases is to fire their doctor, and undergo a change of lifestyle towards more healthy diet, giving up street drugs (clean needles to shoot "junk" never helped), staying out of the bath-houses, and so on. But that's not the message so many AIDS patients want to hear, nor for the social-political groups which get filthy rich and empowered by a viral theory, even while no cure, no vaccine, no nothing has ever come from that failed hypothesis of HIV. Educate yourself, for example:
www.virusmyth.com

Ya think!?!?

THere has been a vaccine forever... It's the no anal sex and no IV drugs vaccine.
Get real people... AIDS is a racket (isn't everything that doesn't make sense?)

I've done AIDS research as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I have firsthand knowledge of the AIDS research world, so if you want an informed opinion, at least hear me out.

AIDS research is making progress. Papers have been published that have vaccines that are getting closer to working. 25 years is nothing. New technology is developed all the time, the next advance might be the one we need to develop the vaccine. Also, Malaria has been killing humans for much longer and AIDS (about 50,000 years. 500 times longer than HIV).

You can't look at how HIV is passed as a moral issue. As soon as you make a moral judgment, you say "My morals are right, and your morals are wrong." The whole world is made up of many different cultures, none of them better than another. We know HIV is preventable by not having sex or using dirty needles. However, there is a different culture in parts of Africa. The women can't tell their husbands "No" or make them wear a condom. The men have been sleeping with prostitutes and contracted HIV, which is then passed on to their wives. No educational program is going to change that culture. The men see it as their right to sleep with a prostitute and also to sleep with their wife. We can't expect them to listen to what we believe any more than they could expect us to listen to them and follow their beliefs.

The majority of HIV cases are passed on in cultures like the one described above. A vaccine is their only hope.

Points of Interest on the United States National Institute of Health Research Allocations per 2005 budget:

AIDS deaths from CDC estimated at 18,017 in 2003

Cardiovascular Disease kills 930,000 every year, yet receives over 1/2 Billion less than AIDS in research funding

The NIH is spending $3,084 on each citizen estimated as having HIV/AIDS versus only $40 on each cardio-
vascular disease patient

Diabetes kills more Americans than AIDS and breast cancer combined, yet the NIH spends only $80 on each diabetic

Alzheimer's Disease kills 3.3 times more than AIDS, yet the NIH spends only $155 on each patient with Alzheimer's Disease

Prostate cancer kills 2 times more than AIDS, yet the NIH spends only $150 on each patient with prostate disease

Hepatitis C (HCV) kills 12,000, yet the NIH spends only $25 on each HCV patient

Hepatitis B (HBV) kills 5,000, yet the NIH spends only $32 on each HBV patient

The flu (influenza) on average, now kills almost 2+ times more than AIDS. Flu: $60 million
AIDS: $2.3 Billion

Parkinson's Disease death rate similar to AIDS yet the NIH spends $162 on each patient.

Total USA HIV/AIDS budget for 2005 totals just under $20 Billion. 11 Billion for care, cash & housing assistance for patients. Total AIDS Funding since day one: 170 Billion dollars through 2005 (From Henry J Kaiser Foundation)

The infection rate for AIDS throughout the entire world is 1 percent or less except in two countries, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean

It is unbelievable that in a supposedly educated country this board has filled up with idiotic comments denying the existence of HIV. Do you people realize how much damage these bullshit theories can do in the developing world and maybe even here?

It is thanks to medical research and drugs produced by those big evil pharmaceutical companies that being infected with HIV if no longer a death sentence. Thankfully if you are fortunate enough to live in this country, obtain treatment, you can have an almost normal life expectancy. Yes vaccine research is difficult. Why don't you give it a go? It will be a sad day for society when we stop trying to help people with diseases; especially when we are willing to spend millions on domes, missiles and Olympics. To protect large numbers of people in countries with poor infrastructure a vaccine may be the only feasible option.

You could try injecting yourselves with HIV and see how long you live? The following website answers pretty much all the crap out there http://www.aidstruth.org/ and includes a list of HIV-infected denialists who have died:
http://www.aidstruth.org/aids-denialists-who-have-died.php

HIV/AIDS isn't the same sort of beast as cancer. We can eliminate HIV/AIDS through care and caution. Remove careless and uncaring promiscuity, eliminate drug use and be more stringent in checks for blood donations, world wide. Use the money wasted in research and war to pay for the clean up. Then start working on getting people to realise that careless promiscuity is wrong, not a leisure pursuit. We could lick the problem if we have the will power. It is only those who want to pursue a lifestyle devoid of basic morality and care for others who object!

i strongly feel research needs to be continued and supported.there are some many areas of this that needs to be studied. my partner died of a very rare hiv associated form of cancer called castlemans disease. the only info i could source was from a very outdated usa site .i spent hours trying to educate and find information around castlemans disease.including corresponding wit prof corey casper who hasresearched it.there were trials being run in the states unfortunetley ian was too weak to travel overseas. little funding for research is offered over here.and the clinics and wards are underfunded.after ians death i agreed to a full post mortem so research could be carried out to discover more about this disease.
this article might also be of interest if it allowed to be posted?
HIV Still Kills
Guy Wright’s partner, Ian Halliley, passed away on April 3 this year, shortly after they entered into a Civil Partnership. Ian tested HIV+ in August 2004, but only ever went back for one check-up and didn’t return for the results. When he did go back, in October 2006, it was too late.
“Ian was 34 when he passed away on the Howard 2 Ward at the Royal Sussex County Hospital,” Guy explains. “He was Mr. Invincible. He was never ill, and he never had a day off sick - unless it was to get a day off work. He was a face you knew, yet you didn’t. His life was on the club scene. He liked to look good and be noticed and he succeeded in both. He was a definite meet on Gaydar and up for anything.”
“With that description you probably think he was a bit of a slag, having unsafe sex, and bound to be HIV positive. Far from it. From the age of 18, Ian was the most responsible sexual partner you could want. He had hundreds of partners over the years, but he also had hundreds of condoms in his car. Whatever Ian did and whatever reputation he got, he was safe and responsible. When I first met him I laughed at the fact his glove compartment was jam-packed full of condoms! Yet I was grateful that this was the case. Although it hurt knowing he played the field sometimes, it was reassuring knowing he was safe. For him, for me, and for society.”
“Ian got HIV tested every year without fail. Each December he would go to the Claude Nicol Clinic regardless of whether he had any concerns or not. It was like a yearly pilgrimage, and every year he was clear. Until August 2004. He had had safer sex at a club in London, but suspected the condom had broken. Ian was diagnosed HIV positive. Our lives were shattered and we started to look ahead to securing our future. We bought a business with accommodation above. This was so that if Ian was taken ill, I could care for him more easily. Although I really didn’t care if he passed the HIV on to me, I didn’t want to be around without him. He was so responsible. He taped his shaving stick so that we didn’t share, and we had distinctive toothbrushes.”
“Unfortunately Ian’s responsibility stopped there. He was always thinking about others, and being responsible towards them, yet not to himself. After he was diagnosed HIV+ there was no immediate threat to his life or health, so in his view he was well. A year passed and all was well. Ian returned to the clinic the following December for blood tests, yet never returned for the results. Ian’s character was very strong and he was always in control, but he was not good at taking my advice to look after his health and follow through any tests.”
“After a year of bad luck with our business, in November last year, Ian seemed a bit calmer. We had been through a very bad patch and but things were finally settling down. Ian returned to the Claude Nicol Clinic for blood tests. This was when they became concerned about raised glands around his neck. These had been prominent since being diagnosed, yet Ian put it down to typical HIV symptoms. Unfortunately this was not the case. The consultant showed great concern and Ian underwent an operation to remove a gland for testing.”
“This was the beginning of our long-term relationship with some fantastic human beings, the staff on Howard 2 Ward, or as Ian would call them, angels. Everyone has visions or ideas of what it is like on a specialist HIV ward. The day we arrived I expected to see something quite different to what I did. We waited in the day room for Ian’s room to be available. The ward consists of 6 rooms and one treatment room. We initially met Guido, who opened the ward when it was originally called the Elton John Ward at Brighton General Hospital. Although Guido is straight, he was genuine and respected the fact we were gay and have all the same concerns and feelings as any other heterosexual couple might have. We never had to hide the love and concerns we had for each other. In fact most of the nursing staff were straight, but we never felt awkward about showing our love towards each other, everyone was so friendly and caring. I was included in everything and if I was not present at the original conversation, a doctor would come back when I was there to explain Ian’s progress and future treatment.”
“Three weeks passed and the results of the gland tissue came back. Ian had a very rare condition called Castleman’s disease. It has the same symptoms as cancer and affects the lymph nodes. By now Ian’s health had rapidly deteriorated and he was very short of breath. He was showing classic signs of pneumonia although we were later to discover this was not he case.”
“Ian was re-admitted on December 19 with suspected pneumonia. His vial load was tremendously low. The first objective was to return his breathing to normal and drain the fluid that was causing the problem. Next he was put on anti-virals for the HIV, and then he needed chemotherapy to conquer the Castleman’s disease.”
“Christmas on Howard 2 was inevitable, but by then this was not a problem. It was probably better than a lot of Christmases we’d had in the past. They let our dog in on Christmas day, (it turns out that Scrappy could visit any day), and Ian woke up to presents from the staff on the ward.”
“Ian’s response to the treatment was positive, and he returned home the day before New Year’s Eve. The nurses equipped us with the medication we needed, and assured us they were a phone call away if we had any concerns. Only two days at home and Ian went down hill rapidly. One call to Howard 2 and we had a bed secured for his return.”
“In a short time Ian had built a trusting relationship with the staff on Howard 2 and the thought of going anywhere else was out of the question. He had two visits to intensive care, both of which were life-threatening experiences, and each time he pleaded to be returned to Howard 2. Those nurses and doctors became family to us. We argued like family, and we cried like family. There was never a limit to the time I stayed with Ian, I even lived there for the final month. We knew them all by name. We knew their family backgrounds and hobbies. They respected our love and they fought for our future. When the time came that no more could be done for Ian, I wanted him to be somewhere else rather than in hospital, but this was not to be. I remember shortly before Ian died, one of the nurses, Suzanne, saying ‘We not only care for patients, but we also help them pass away peacefully.’ Ian could not have died in a more loving and caring place.”
“What I would like to get across is that people still die from HIV. Although there are treatments out there, they only work if you abide by the guidelines. Without the discipline to go for regular checkups and, when necessary, take medication - they too have a good chance of dying. Remember the people you leave behind. It took just four months for me to lose the love of my life.”