AIDS and HIV

[Ocean Seal]

I'm not very cultured in my understanding of the disease. But has it been proven that HIV causes AIDS, or is it beyond reasonable doubt. I saw a book which reeked of conspiracy theorism to me, but apparently there is a professor at Berkeley who believes that the AIDS drugs accelerate the progression of AIDS or something like that and that many AIDS scientists aren't sure if HIV is the only cause of AIDS. I'm not trying to promote a conspiracy theorist viewpoint, I'm only making this post to learn more about this topic. Could someone knowledgeable in the area brief me on this topic?

[Sasha]

Its very much a conspiracy, I can tell you from direct personal experience (i have multiple friends with hiv/aids) that the facts are that hiv and aids are stages from the same disease and that current combination treatment is highly effective, making aids from a deadly disease now more often than not a chronic one. But send cotr a pm to point her attention to this thread, she has years of experience working with aids patients.

[Aurora]

Ya that's a conspiracy theory, the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) does damage to your immune system by infecting certain protective cells, this infection can outright kill the cell or can cause the other protective cells to destroy it, if left untreated with anti-viral drugs this destruction of your immune system continues until you have very little or no protection left and then you have AIDS (Acquired immunodeficiency Syndrome) and have a high risk of death from any number of illnesses that a healthy immune system is usually able to fight off.
Thankfully the drugs that are used to combat HIV have gotten much better and it's no longer a death sentence for all who have access to them.

psycho is right COTR would know a lot more about it.

[pastradamus]

I'm not very cultured in my understanding of the disease. But has it been proven that HIV causes AIDS, or is it beyond reasonable doubt. I saw a book which reeked of conspiracy theorism to me, but apparently there is a professor at Berkeley who believes that the AIDS drugs accelerate the progression of AIDS or something like that and that many AIDS scientists aren't sure if HIV is the only cause of AIDS. I'm not trying to promote a conspiracy theorist viewpoint, I'm only making this post to learn more about this topic. Could someone knowledgeable in the area brief me on this topic?

Im not sure of Berkley's theory but certainly it seems worthy of investigation. I hope that what he says isn't true though. I have a good friend who is a microbiologist and works for the Novartis company and despite the fact he's a pretty staunch capitalist he absolutely believes that there definitely is a cure for HIV/AIDS out there but it isn't worth chasing as they are making an absolute killing off the medication. The old saying is true "the money is in the treatment and not the cure".

But yeah, you wanna talk to somebody about this disease then COTR is your best bet. She worked in a facility that treated AIDS victims.

[Le Libérer]

I'm not very cultured in my understanding of the disease. But has it been proven that HIV causes AIDS, or is it beyond reasonable doubt. I saw a book which reeked of conspiracy theorism to me, but apparently there is a professor at Berkeley who believes that the AIDS drugs accelerate the progression of AIDS or something like that and that many AIDS scientists aren't sure if HIV is the only cause of AIDS. I'm not trying to promote a conspiracy theorist viewpoint, I'm only making this post to learn more about this topic. Could someone knowledgeable in the area brief me on this topic?

Did this study show empirical data? A logic and simple way of looking at it is, AIDS has never been detected without HIV being present first.

Were you referring to Professor Peter Duesberg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Duesberg)? Hes fairly well know as believing other factors causes AIDS, like He admits that HIV exists, but he maintains that it is harmless, and that AIDS is caused by non-contagious factors including drug abuse, malnutrition, and even the very drugs used to combat HIV.

The number of scientists who doubt that HIV causes AIDS is small. Interest in dissident views appears to have dwindled after the excitement surrounding Thabo Mbeki's AIDS panel (https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:91t_znFydiYJ:matrix.msu.edu/hst/hst425/mats/rijn.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh6mYbKrSfdDz8GSUmRopf0ri5lsIl4xFbOD_mY CBfELRj9qLcibqBeyWGqlNdzbAbFZtI4H8OqddrRxYFAe9QVli uKu0vYHZZ_S9_z_nsH_UDqE7jZQGwDsghHr88SpQ5T2Q2M&sig=AHIEtbRCf5u97-lCPQL2EG9ow8QsLlEtSQ&pli=1) and the Durban Declaration in 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durban_declaration). It seems likely that new and better evidence, including the obvious benefits of modern drug treatments, has caused many former dissidents to change their minds.