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DÉJA VU:
AIDS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

on IDEAS, CBC Radio
9 & 10 January 1996
(repeated 5 & 6 September 1996) 

"A mysterious epidemic, hitherto unknown, which had struck terror into all hearts by the rapidity of its spread, the ravages it made, and the apparent helplessness of the physicians to cure it." A quote about AIDS? No. It's about the appearance of syphilis in the early sixteenth century. Writer Colman Jones finds the two diseases share issues, from science and public health to civil liberties and sexuality.


Canadian Science Writers' Association
1996 Science in Society Journalism Award
Radio Items 10 Minutes and Over  

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Program description

Transcripts

Related writings

Syphilis in history: photos and illustrations

Links to related sites:

Historical information
Alternative AIDS resources 
Articles about syphilis and AIDS 
Articles about HIV and AIDS 
Responses to AIDS dissidents
Safer sex information
Other medical information

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Program description

Summary

This two-part radio program places the current responses to AIDS, from both socio-cultural and medical standpoints, in historical perspective. Using interviews with historians and scientists, archival public health films, radio broadcasts, and readings from classical texts, the series traces the history of venereal diseases from the 1600s to the present, and shows how many of today's concerns have clear precedents in past epidemics. The programs underline how a whole series of biological, psychological and social factors shape the public's perception of disease, and society's response to it. The strengths and limits of past approaches to detecting sexually transmitted diseases are explored, in order to shed light on approaches that could be used to control AIDS today.

Outline of individual programs

Déja Vu: AIDS in Historical Perspective is divided into two 1-hour episodes:

Part 1, "The Social Construction of Disease", compares the public reaction to AIDS with past reactions to other sexually transmitted diseases, especially syphilis. We hear about the medical approaches - then and now - which used toxic and ineffective drugs, about blaming the victims, about contact tracing and laws designed to regulate sexual conduct, and about the education campaigns - then and now - which were reluctant to focus on the real risk groups, or to give straightforward advice on self-protection, for fear of offending public taste.

Part 2, "New Questions About an Old Killer", explores the wealth of medical and scientific evidence from the history of sexually transmitted diseases, evidence that sheds considerable light on AIDS today. It suggests we may be living through an extraordinary episode of déja vu, not only as far as the social, cultural, and political responses to AIDS are concerned, but in terms of the actual medical syndrome itself: the program examines evidence that AIDS, as we understand it today, has been around for a long time, and examines the growing questions being raised over the possible hidden role of syphilis in sexually-acquired AIDS.

Featured guests

Over a dozen experts in the fields of infectious diseases, immunology, epidemiology, and medical history were interviewed during the preparation of these programs, including:
  • Edward Shorter, Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Toronto
  • Jay Cassel, Professor of History at Toronto's York University, author of "The Secret Plague: VD in Canada 1838-1939"
  • Robert Root-Bernstein, Associate Professor of Physiology at Michigan State University, author of "Rethinking AIDS: The Tragic Cost of Premature Consensus"
  • Allan Brandt, Kass Professor of the History of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Harvard University, author of "No Magic Bullet", a study of the history of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States in the 20th century
  • Daniel Musher, Head of Infectious Diseases at the Baylor College of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Medical Centre in Houston, Texas
  • Jadwiga Podwiñska, Associate Professor at the Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Wroclaw, Poland
  • István Horváth, Doctor of Science, Department Head for syphilis serology, National Center for Dermatology and Venereology, Budapest, Hungary
  • Bruno Schmidt, Laboratory Chief at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Dermato-venerological Sero-diagnosis in Vienna, Austria
  • Justin Radolf, Director, Center for Microbial Pathogenesis, and Professor of Microbiology at the University of Connecticut Health Center
  • Konstantin Borisenko, General Director of Moscow's Association Against Sexually Transmitted Diseases (SANAM), and a top Russian syphilis expert
  • Robert Rolfs, former medical epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), now Director of the Bureau of Surveillance and Analysis, Utah Department of Health
  • Nikolai Chaika, Director of Information for the Ukraine's Pasteur Institute in St. Petersburg
  • Nils Strandber Pedersen, Director of the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, covering all syphilis diagnostic services in Denmark.
  • Barbara Romanowski, Director of Sexually Transmitted Disease Services for the province of Alberta, and also Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Alberta
  • Stephen Caiazza, the (now deceased) New York physician who treated his AIDS patients with penicillin, suspecting they were dying from syphilis.
  • John Scythes, an independent investigator and owner of Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto.

    • Credits

    Déja Vu: AIDS in Historical Perspective was produced by Max Allen.
    Technical operations: Lorne Tulk.
    The executive producer of Ideas is Bernie Lucht.

    Transcripts

    To read selected excerpts from these programs, click here.

    To order a full printed transcript of these programs (complete with references), send a cheque or money order for $14.00 (includes all taxes and shipping) to Ideas Transcripts, Box 500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5W 1E6. You can also order by sending e-mail to ideastran@toronto.cbc.ca or calling 1-(416)-205-6010.

    For a listing of other Ideas programs on AIDS, click here.

    For more information on ordering transcripts, click here.

    Related writings

    (Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites)

  • Program proposal: how it all began
  • Reading list (last updated 02/12/99): detailed bibliographic information, including links to online abstracts from the scientific literature
  • Various articles/papers/documentaries by Colman Jones:
  • Scientific abstracts and papers by John Scythes and colleagues, presented at international AIDS and STD conferences
  • Public archives of AIDSsyphilis electronic mailing list
  • Interview with Professor Daniel Musher (September 17, 2000) (Real Audio)
  • "Changes to CDC's online syphilis fact sheet" (August 7-21, 2000): Scythes and Jones query surprising deletions to the U.S. government's online information on syphilis (see older version)
  • "Insensitive syphilis tests: Implications for HIV/AIDS?" (June 28, 2000), comments on the poster "Treponemal Based Screening for Syphilis—Detecting Latent Cases", presented by the Ontario Public Health Laboratory at the May 2000 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology
  • "Response to Minority Statement and Recommendations to the Government of South Africa", a point-by point May 15, 2000 response on the minority statement by dissident scientists issued May 7, 2000, following the first meeting of the South African President Thabo Mbeki's HIV/AIDS panel. See also "Does Minority AIDS Science Listen To Its Own Minorities?", an editorial by Irish AIDS dissident Fintan Dunne; subsequent e-mail exchanges with panel members, May 16-22, 2000; and Scythes and Jones' initial letter to Mbeki (March 10, 2000)
  • "Explanations are required!", a 1999 e-mail discussion with AIDS dissident Vladimir Koliadin Ph.D., a Senior Research Scientist at the Kharkov Aviation Institute in the Ukraine, and a member of the American Mathematical Society
  • "Implications of the Recent Lyme Culture Technique for the Diagnosis of Syphilis", a poster by Scythes and Jones presented at the 12th International Conference on Lyme Disease and Other Spirochetal and Tick-Borne Disorders, New York City, April 9 & 10, 1999 [see also press release)
  • Syphilis, HIV and AIDS: new approaches for the 21st century, a communication by Scythes posted December 21, 1998 to several STD/AIDS-related Internet newgroups and mailing lists, which was followed by a January 1999 discussion with HIV researcher Leonard Pattenden on the AIDS Rethink list.
  • "Spectrum of Cellular Immune Responses to the Human Immunodeficiency Viruses and the Human Treponematoses", abstract co-authored by Scythes and Jones, accepted for a co-plenary presentation in the oral sessions at the VenSouth '97 IUVDT HIV/STD World Congress, Melbourne, Australia, June 1997
  • "Acquired Immune 'Dysregulation' Syndrome", an extended debate initiated by Jones on October 24, 1995 on the Internet newsgroup sci.med.aids

    • Syphilis in history: photos and illustrations

    Early syphilis warning posters, historical depictions, and photos related to the IDEAS program. There are 3 separate displays:

    Links to related sites

    Historical information 1940s penicillin poster

  • History of Medicine unit of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto (workplace of Edward Shorter)
  • Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (workplace of Allan Brandt)
  • Robert Root-Bernstein at the Department of Physiology of Michigan State University
  • "Of epidemics in general", introduction by Dr. Richard Travers to an exhibition of material from the Rare Books Collection of Monash University Library , Clayton, Victoria, Australia, 19 March - 17 May 1998
  • "The Great Scourge: Syphilis as a medical problem and moral metaphor, 1880-1916", by Lesley A. Hall, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London, a paper written for and given at a Courtauld Institute Symposium, 23 May 1998: Le Grand Mort. Twentieth Century Bodies, Sexuality, Death and Degeneracy
  • "H. Houston Merritt and Neurosyphilis, Then and Now", by Leonidas Stefanis, M.D. and Lewis P. Rowland, M.D. of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, N.Y.
  • "Origins of Syphilis", by Mark Rose, in Archaeology, vol. 50, no.1 (January/February 1997)
  • Images From the History of the (U.S.) Public Health Service: A Photographic Exhibit
  • Online Images from the History of Medicine
  • AIDS, Medicine, and Cultural Studies, a course description by Paula Treichler
  • "Aids: Lessons from Syphilis", by Neil Weiner, an independent researcher and writer, graduate of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
  • "Naming the Enemy: AIDS Research, Contagion and the Discovery of HIV", by Marcus Boon, published in Cultronix, a journal of cultural studies from the English and Art Departments at Carnegie Mellon University
  • "Deleuze, Sense and the Event of AIDS", by C. Colwell, Villanova University, Australia
  • "The AIDS Pandemic Is New, But is HIV New?", by David P. Mindell, Jeffrey W. Shultz, and Paul W. Ewald, published in Systematic Biology, vol. 44, no.1 (March 1995)
  • "What Happens When Science Goes Bad. The Corruption of Science and the Origin of AIDS: A Study in Spontaneous Generation", by Louis Pascal, published by the University of Wollongong, in New South Wales, Australia
  • Chicago's War on Syphilis, 1937-1940: The Times, The Trib, and the Clap Doctor, with an Epilogue on Issues and Attitudes in the Time of AIDS (book information)
  • Thorns on the Rose: The History of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Australia in International Perspective (book information)

    • Alternative AIDS resources

  • "Investigating AIDS science: Is syphilis the missing link?" (Colman Jones)
  • Fintan Dunne's AIDSMyth, featuring late breaking news stories about AIDS dissidents
  • Robert Laarhoven's huge Rethinking AIDS Website
  • Reappraising AIDS, a journal edited by Paul Philpott
  • South Africa AIDS International Review - official private debate site for HIV/AIDS panel appointed by President Thabo Mbeki (entries are password-protected, but message index is searchable)
  • HIV=AIDS Controversy, a good collection of sources assembled by Alan Koontz, including Fred Cline's excellent AIDS Bibliography
  • Ben Gardiner's AIDS BBS, the first and oldest AIDS bulletin board
  • Women's Health Interaction, a volunteer feminist health collective that recently prepared a discussion paper entitled "UnCommon Questions: A Feminist Exploration of AIDS" (in PDF file format, viewable using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software)
  • Does HIV Cause AIDS?, a comprehensive site set up by the Valley Advocate, a newsweekly based in Hatfield, Mass. (click here for a no-frames version)
  • AIDS = AUTHORIZED INSANITY DISINFORMATION SYNROME
  • Practical Freedom - Rethinking AIDS & the HIV Hypothesis
  • AIDS Reconsidered
  • Harvard Teach-In on AIDS and Alternative Theories
  • Various AIDS theories compiled by Ken Shirriff
  • The AIDS Gate: A call to arms by ex-Senator Stephen Davis
  • Iron Peter: Excerpt of online book by Charles Ortleb (for sale)
  • The Perth Group: Homepage of Eleni Eleopulos-Papadopulos et al., a group of Australian scientists raising questions over whether HIV has even been isolated as a distinct microbiological entity
  • Conscious Rasta Press: Conscious Rasta Reports
  • The HIV-AIDS Hoax?, part of The Galileo Effect: The Struggle for Truth in Science
  • AIDS Heretics, by the Church of Euthanasia
  • 12th World AIDS Conference (parody) [versión español]
  • Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society
  • AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) dissident chapters: San Francisco, Hollywood, Atlanta, Toronto
  • Health Education AIDS Liaison (HEAL) an international association of lay AIDS dissidents, with chapters in New York, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Monterey Peninsula, Nova Southeastern University, Huntsville, Denver, France, and Berlin, as well as a Canadian arm, HEAL Toronto, the subject of several articles by Colman Jones in NOW Magazine:

    • Non-English sites

  • Exploser le mythe "VIH/sida" (French)
  • HEAL Nurnberg (German)
  • Micha's Virus-Info-Seite von Michael Leitner (German)
  • Über die wissenschaftliche AIDS-Kritik von Michael Nitsche (German)
  • Verteidigung der AIDS-Kritiker (German)
  • AIDS: Viel Angst und Leid, Irrtümer und viel Geld - Eine Kritik an der Virus-AIDS-Theorie von Dr. med. Heidi Kölle (German) in Punktum
  • FreeNews (Spanish)
  • Asociación de Medicinas Complementarias. (A.M.C.) (Spanish)
  • Temas Atuais na Promoção da Saúde (Brazil)
  • Controinformazione AIDS (Italian)

    • Miscellaneous online articles about syphilis and AIDS

  • "Chronic Spirochetal Infection and the Pathogenesis of AIDS", by Stephen S. Caiazza, M.D., (from Quantum Medicine, a Journal of Comparative Therapeutics, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1988)
  • "AIDS Inc., Part 6" (from Conspiracy Nation, Vol. 7, Num. 35), includes excerpt of Jon Rappoport's March 21, 1988 interview with Caiazza (author of the 1991 book AIDS: One Doctor's Personal Struggle)
  • Harris Coulter, of The Center for Empirical Medicine, is author of the first book on the syphilis/AIDS connection AIDS & Syphilis: The Hidden Link. Coulter even testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Labor in 1988
  • "AIDS Watch: The Shaky Case for an AIDS-Syphilis Connection", (abstract) by Denise Grady, Discover Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 12, December 1988, p. 24
  • "Syphilis and AIDS: What's the Connection?", by John Dooley, Gay Community News, Vol. 16, No. 37, April 2 - 8, 1989
  • "Joan McKenna's Theory: 80% of AIDS Cases Are Really Disguised Syphilis" (author unknown). Joan McKenna, now minister of the Vaca Valley Church of Religious Science, offers a Speaking page detailing the history of her involvement, along with a schedule of 1998 programs and work sessions under the title "AIDS and Syphilis Update."
  • "Alternative AIDS cures?", from & THE TEMPLE OF THE SCREAMING ELECTRON (&TOTSE)
  • Washington, D. C. physician Larry Bruni , interviewed by AIDS Treatment News in 1991, talking about treating syphilis in people with AIDS
  • "Syphilis Treatment in HIV-infected Women", by Janet L. Mitchell, M.D., M.P.H. Treatment Issues (The Gay Men's Health Crisis Newsletter of Experimental AIDS Therapies) Vol. 6, No. 7, Summer/Fall 1992
  • "Syphilis as AIDS? - A Call For Research", by Robert Ben Mitchell (author of the 1989 book Syphilis as AIDS), published in Medical Hypothesis (1993) vol. 48, p. 115-117, and included as an appendix in his book "Before I get AIDS: A Past, Present and Future Guide For Those With and Without HIV"
  • STDs and HIV - HIV Counselor PERSPECTIVES, Vol 3, Num 1, Feb 1993
  • "HIV and the Presentation of Early Syphilis", a review by Dr. Julian Gold, Director, Albion Street Centre, Sydney, HIV Journal Club (published by The Australasian Society for HIV Medicine), March 1995, Volume 4, No. 3: "../syphilis should still be considered as an important possible condition in patients who present with HIV illnesses and that previously treated syphilis may not be a guarantee that there are no longer manifestation of syphilis in HIV patients."
  • INFECTION FIGHTERS: Syphilis, by Sean Hosein, Treatment Update no. 55, vol. 7, no.1
  • "Syphilis and AIDS", by Jadwiga Podwinska, Ph. D, published in Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis Vol. 44, No. 5-6, 1996, pp. 329-33. From the abstract: "the presence of syphilis may ../influence../ progression of chronic HIV infection to AIDS." See also Podwinska's "Regulation Of Cell-mediated Immune Response In Syphilis", a presentation for the 2000 Gordon Research Conference on the Biology of Spirochetes
  • "Cerebral Infections in AIDS: Neurosyphilis", by Justin C. McArthur (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) and Michael J.G. Harrison (University of the City of London School of Medicine), published in Infections in Medicine, 14(1):60,65-74 (1997), available from Medscape (requires prior registration)
  • "Routinely Reported Sexually Transmitted Diseases Presage the Evolution of the AIDS Epidemic" by Eleni Petridou, Urania Dafni, Jonathan Freeman, and Dimitrios Trichopoulos, Journal of Epidemiology Volume 8, Number 4, July 1997
  • "Syphilis Serology May Be Misleading in Some HIV-Infected Individuals", Reuters Health Information Services, November 3, 1997
  • "Syphilis in HIV-Infected Hosts", by Gail Bolan, published May 1998 by the HIV Insite (formerly AIDS) Knowledge Base, a textbook from the University of California, San Francisco, and the San Francisco General Hospital
  • "The HIV myth: Is the government telling us the truth? Or do they even know what the truth is?", San Francisco Bay Guardian, Jan. 24, 2000, with sidebar on Caiazza
  • "The Secret Life of Syphilis", by Daniel Wolfe, POZ Magazine, November 2000

    Miscellaneous online articles about HIV and AIDS

  • From the Rethinking AIDS website: The Controversy (quotes from scientists and activists) and Introduction (introductory reading list)
  • "Fatal Distraction", by Celia Farber, published in Spin Magazine, June 1992. See also her excellent editorial "Fear and Loathing in Geneva: Some Reflections on the Sorry State of AIDS Journalism", published August 24, 1998 by Impression, an online magazine, subsequently followed by "A Mother's Love" (September 21, 1998), "The Nightmare Continues" (October 19, 1998) and "AIDS As Metaphor" (November 16, 1998)
  • "Rethinking AIDS", by Robert Root-Bernstein, published in the Wall Street Journal, March 17, 1993. See also his paper "Five myths about AIDS that have misdirected research and treatment", published in Genetica, 1995, vol. 95
  • "Conspiracy of Silence", The Sunday Times (London) 3 April 1994, by Neville Hodgkinson, author of the book AIDS: The Failure of Contemporary Science. See also Hodgkinson's "AIDS: Is Anyone Positive?", published in The European, June 22, 1998
  • "What Causes AIDS?: It's an Open Question", by former Harvard molecular biologist Charles A. Thomas Jr., Kary B. Mullis, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in chemistry, and U. California at Berkeley law professor Phillip E. Johnson, published in Reason Magazine, June, 1994. To read the replies to the article, click here. See also their article "Dissenting on AIDS: The Case Against the HIV-Causes-AIDS Hypothesis" by published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, May 15, 1994
  • "HIV - Fact or Fable?", by Eli Hans, published in Macrobiotics Today, November/December 1994
  • "Dissident AIDS: The Rising Voices of Opposition", and "AIDS' Achilles Heel: The HIV Antibody Tests", by Keidi Obi Awadu (excerpted from: AIDS: The Establishment Confesses It's A Hoax, a Conscious Rasta Report)
  • ACT UP NIH Background Paper
  • "Are the HIV viruses really the causal agents of AIDS?" by Benitez Bribiesca, L. in Gac. Med. Mex., Jan-Feb 1991
  • "HIV and AIDS: A Study of the Relevance of Health Education Programmes", a 1994 dissertation (submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education) by Susan Freda Warman, an education administrator and biology lecturer at the Faculty of Education of Brunel University in Middlesex, England, on the HIV/AIDS hypothesis and the British education system.
  • "Rethinking AIDS", a sermon by Unitarian Universalist minister Linda Sophia Pinti, delivered at the Unitarian Society of Gardner, Masschusetts, March 12, 1995
  • "Immunopathogenesis of AIDS: A Synthesis", by San Francisco treatment activist Billi Goldberg
  • "The Thinking Problem in HIV-Science", by University of California at Berkeley law professor Phillip Johnson
  • "The Limits of Science", by Anthony Liversidge, from Cultural Studies Times, Fall 1995
  • "Old Paradigms Die Hard", by Robert Laarhoven
  • "Does HIV cause AIDS?", by John Hunter
  • "Does HIV really cause AIDS?", by Ram Samudrala, a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University.
  • The viruses in all of us: characteristics and biological significance of human endogenous retrovirus sequences", abstract of paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), May 28, 1996
  • "The Isolation of HIV -- Has it Really Been Achieved: The Case Against", a massive paper questioning the very existence of HIV as a distinct microbiological entity, by Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F. Turner, John M. Papadimitriou and David Causer, from the Departments of Medical Physics and Emergency Medicine at Royal Perth Hospital, and the Department of Pathology, University of Western Australia, published in Britain's Continuum magazine, Vol.4, No.3 (Sept./Oct. 1996). Here is a summary of the paper, "Origins of the Specious", a review in the same issue by Neville Hodgkinson, and "Collective Fallacy: Rethinking HIV", in which Dr. Stefan Lanka responds to Professor's Peter Duesberg's paper. See also Val Turner's "The AIDS Virus: Matter or Metaphor?" , "What is the Evidence for the Existence of HIV?", "The Yin & Yang of HIV", a 3-part series Turner co-authored with Andrew McIntyre, published in Nexus Magazine , as well as "HIV: A Great Future Behind It", a 60-minute talk in RealAudio. For a somewhat different perspective on the HIV isolation question, see "What if HIV Doesn't Exist?", by Colman Jones, published in NOW Magazine, November 21, 1996.
  • "How to Read a Paper", by Trisha Greenhalgh, published 1997 in the British Medical Journal, a series of articles introducing non-experts to finding medical articles and assessing their value
  • "Sick of It All: A vigilant -- and much-vilified -- band of dissidents decries the HIV=AIDS=death mythology", by Mark K. Anderson, published in the Valley Advocate.
  • "15 years of AIDS: The continuous failure in the prevention and treatment of AIDS is rooted in the misinterpretation of an inflammatory autoimmune process as a lethal, viral venereal disease" by A. Hässig, H. Kremer, S. Lanka, W-X Liang, K. Stampfli
  • "Aids Dissidents Speak Out", by Gary Null
  • What is wrong with the HIV-AIDS hypothesis?, by Dr. Rudolf Werner of the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Miami School of Medicine, which includes recent articles posted by The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis and some stories taken from Christine Maggiore's book "What if everything you thought you knew about AIDS WAS WRONG?"
  • AIDS Criticism Resource Guide, compiled by James DeMeo, Ph.D., who also provides AIDS Mythology Books: Debunking the "Infectious HIV" Theory and an article, "HIV is Not the Cause of AIDS: A Summary of Current Research Findings"
  • "Blinding Me with Science: Deconstructing the HIV=AIDS hypothesis", by Sarah Klipfel, published in the Westchester Co. Weekly, September 17, 1998
  • "HIV: a red herring?", by Sky Gilbert, Globe and Mail, October 13, 1998
  • "Mind field' for AIDS", by Michael Clement and Brad Honywill, Toronto Sun, October 18, 1998
  • International Scientific Debate About the Etiology of AIDS", an HIV/AIDS reading and reference list prepared by Roberto Giraldo, M.D. (New York) (from the HEAL Toronto website)
  • "HIV, the Profitable Paradigm", by David H. Tyson
  • "How could they all be wrong? Doctors and AIDS", by Anthony Brink, an Advocate (Barrister) in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. More of Brink's articles can be found here
  • "Horton Hears the W.H.O.", unpublished letter to the editors of The New York Review of Books, from Richard Rath and Charles Geshekter, concerning Lancet editor Richard Horton's review of Peter Duesberg's books, with links to a summary of the review, WHO and UNAIDS policy statements on AIDS in Africa, related critiques, and a discussion forum. For a more recent update on developments in Africa, see "Fudged facts: AIDS science does a number on Africa" (NOW, March 9, 2000) by Colman Jones
  • Speech by South African President Thabo Mbeki at the Opening Session of the XIII International Conference on AIDS in Durban, July 9, 2000
  • A Call for support to Strategies of Hope to the African HIV/AIDS Holocaust, by Peter S. Kasule, Director, Compassionate Trust Services (COTS), Kampala, Uganda

  • A "news only" AIDS-Criticism group is operated by Prof. Phillip Johnson at the University of California at Berkeley. To subscribe, send email to majordomo@listlink.berkeley.edu that contains: subscribe rethinkaids in the body of the message. This list is for receipt of news only, not for discussion.

    • Responses to AIDS dissidents

    (NB: none of the following rebuttals address the possible role of latent syphilis in AIDS)

  • "The HIV Controversy: Face-off with the flat-earthers", by David Scondras, POZ Magazine, October 2000
  • "The HIV Disbelievers", by David France, Newsweek, August 21, 2000
  • "Contributing to genocide", by Kate Scannell, July 28, 2000, Salon (online magazine)
  • "A Step Back in Time: AIDS Dissenters Cannot Delete 20 Years of Research and Experience", by Rebecca Voelker, Journal of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, July 2000
  • "How African Science Has Demonstrated That HIV Causes AIDS Proof Positive", and "Debating the Obvious" by Mark Schoofs, Village Voice, July 5-11, 2000
  • "The Durban Declaration", a consensus statement signed by over 5,000 HIV scientists around the world, released in Paris July 1, 2000, and subsequently published in both July 7 issue of the science journal Nature and in a full-page advertisement< in the July 9 issue of New York Times, coinciding with the start of the XIII International Conference on AIDS in Durban, South Africa. See also: "The Durban Declaration is not News", a July 3 commentary by New York dissident Lynn Gannett; "Declaration of Ignorance" (July 6, 2000), by journalist Nicholas Regush, from his Second Opinion column on ABCNews.com; two comments from Australian mathematician Mark Craddock; IFAS Observation Report on Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel, South Africa, May to July 2000 by Michael Baumgartner, Secretary General, International Forum for Accessible Science, Bern, Switzerland; "The famous 3../.", by David Crowe, President of the Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society, concerning the three lab workers who allegedly developed AIDS after accidental exposure to HIV; "The Durban Declaration Is Not Accepted By All", letter signed by 12 dissidents, published in Nature vol. 407 (September 2000), p. 286, which declined to publish another rebuttal by the Perth group of scientists
  • Focus On The HIV-AIDS Connection, an extensive collection of links to material supporting HIV as the cause of AIDS from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), including the massive treatise "The Relationship between the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome", as well as the fact sheets "How HIV Causes AIDS" and  "The Evidence That HIV Causes AIDS"
  • Special Report on HIV & AIDS: Bulletin of Experimental Treatments for AIDS (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) Spring 2000, including  "HIV is the only cause of AIDS/The potential for journalism to impact" by Mark Wainberg, PhD, and "HIV causes AIDS -- proof derived from Koch's postulates" by Tim Teeter
  • "Confronting The 'AIDS Dissidents'", by Bruce Mirken, Planet Out, June 6, 2000
  • "Science, sense and nonsense about HIV in Africa", editorial by Angus Nicoll & Japhet Killewo, Communicable Disease And Public Health, vol. 3, no. 2, June 2000 (article in PDF file format, viewable using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software)
  • Community Voices: News and Views on AIDS Causality from AIDS Activists and Educators
  • "AIDS denialists: how to respond", by John S. James, AIDS Treatment News, May 5, 2000
  • "HIV, AIDS, and the Distortion of Science" (May 2000) and "HIV is the cause of AIDS" (August 1999), by Martin Delaney, Founding Director, Project Inform, a leading American HIV treatment education and advocacy organization
  • "Answering the AIDS denialists: CD4 (T-cell) counts and viral load", by Bruce Mirken, AIDS Treatment News, April 21, 2000
  • "HIV, AIDS and the Reappearance of an Old Myth", a March 20, 2000 Background Brief from UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS
  • "Celia Farber and Denial in the Streets of San Francisco", editor's commentary in Treatment Issues: Newsletter of Experimental AIDS Therapies - Volume 14, Number 3/4, Spring 2000
  • "HAART sick hoax", by Tim Horn and Linda Grinberg, Bay Area Reporter, February 25, 2000
  • "Bad science: They once thought HIV was harmless. Now, they say, AIDS has forced them to reconsider", by Bruce Mirken, San Francisco Bay Guardian, February 2, 2000
  • "Doubting that HIV causes AIDS", "AIDS dissidents", and "Alternative theories of causation", from AIDSmap, November, 1999
  • "Idiopathic CD4+ T-lymphocytopenia (ICL) - mysterious AIDS cases", (author unknown), Chronic Illnet Report #4, April, 1999
  • "Dissident scientists and government conspiracies: a look at alternative AIDS theories", by Aaron Plant, Associate Producer, HIV InSite, August 4, 1998
  • "Discovering AIDS" an editorial by Michael S. Gottlieb concerning "Inventing the AIDS Virus Hypothesis: An Illustration of Scientific vs Unscientific Induction", by Malcolm Maclure, from B.C.'s Ministry of Health, published in the July 1998 (Vol. 9, No. 4) issue of the Journal of Epidemiology
  • "Anatomy of a self-financing study for HIV-AIDS skeptics", a proposal by German mathematician Axel Boldt, September, 1997
  • "The Duesberg Controversy", a page designed in April 1997 by a group of third year immunology students from the University of New South Wales, Australia
  • "HIV=AIDS Peter Duesburg says no!" by Robert Capps , Prism Online May 1995
  • "The HIV-AIDS debate is over/what to tell your patients when they ask if HIV causes AIDS", by Stephen J. O’Brien, Ph.D. Director, Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute, HIVNewsline, Volume 3, Issue 1, February 1997
  • "HIV causes AIDS: Koch's postulates fulfilled", by Profs. O'Brien SJ, Goedert JJ Curr Opin Immunol 1996 Oct;8(5):613-8
  • Letter from U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala sent to Congressman Gil Gutknecht, July 10, 1995
  • "The AIDS Heresies", by Dr. Steven Harris, published in Skeptic Magazine, vol. 3, no. 2, 1995, pp. 42-58
  • "The Controversy over HIV and AIDS", by Jon Cohen, Science Magazine, 266: 1645, December 9, 1994 (articles in PDF format)
  • "HIV-1 the Cause of AIDS - Prof Duesberg Rebutted", by Dr. David Fulcher, HIV Journal Club, May 1993
  • "HIV-1 and the aetiology of AIDS", by Profs. Schechter MT, Craib KJ, Gelman KA, et al. The Lancet. 1993; 341(8846): 658-659
  • "Does drug use cause AIDS?", by Profs. Asher MS, Sheppard HW, Winkelstein W Jr, et al. Nature. 1993; 362(6416): 103-104
  • "Does HIV cause AIDS? An updated response to Duesberg's theories", Kurth, R. Paul Ehrlich Institute, Langen/Frankfurt, Intervirology 1990;31(6):301-14

    Safer sex information

  • The Safer Sex Page - Lots of info!
  • Commercial Sex Information Service: Medical Research page
  • Coalition for Positive Sexuality, a grassroots, not-for-profit, activist organization, dedicated to providing teens with candid sex education materials
  • Go Ask Alice
  • The Society for Human Sexuality, devoted to the study of human sexuality
  • Alt.sex Frequently Answered Questions
  • Gender and Sexuality
  • Syphilis (a poem)

    • Other medical information

    HIV/AIDS

  • The AIDS Educational Global Information System (ÆGIS), reportedly "the single most comprehensive source of HIV/AIDS information in the world", with a powerful database engine that lets you search scientific abstracts from the National Library of Medicine (AIDSLINE), as well as tens of thousands of other related documents.
  • Sci.Med.Aids Newsgroup Article Search: Mailgate or Google
  • MEDLINE query
  • JAMA HIV/AIDS Journal Scan
  • HIV/AIDS in the British Medical Journal and the Lancet
  • AIDS/HIV Treatment, Prevention, Cure: links from Healthlinkusa
  • The Body: Understanding HIV and AIDS Volume 2, No. 5

    • SYPHILIS

  • New York State Department of Health Communicable Disease Fact Sheet: Syphilis: "There is no natural immunity to syphilis and past infection offers no protection to the patient."
  • Syphilis Fact Sheet from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which notes that syphilis antibodies "are not useful for diagnosing a new case of syphilis in patients who have had the disease previously" and "do not protect against a new syphilis infection." The fact sheet does not specify how re-exposures are diagnosed in the absence of positive test results or typical symptoms, nor what are the immunological consequences of new infection(s).
  • From the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia:
  • Health Canada: 1998/1999 Canadian Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Surveillance Report: Infectious Syphilis (Treponema pallidum), as published in the CCDR Supplement Volume 26S6, October 2000
  • Interpretation of Serologic Tests For Syphilis from Highlights of the Canadian STD Guidelines – 1998 Edition, part of the larger document Canadian STD Guidelines - 1998 Edition which state that "a negative non-treponemal test result does NOT rule out latent syphilis" and "interpretation of syphilis serology is often difficult. Advice from a colleague experienced in this area should be sought../ age of the patient, clinical situation, history of disease, knowledge of previous treatment and previous serologic results are very important in an assessment."
  • "What you need to know about STD - Syphilis", published by Health Canada
  • "Syphilis: Epidemiology and Control", published in The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality (Volume 6 - Number 2 1997) Special Issue on STDs and Sexual/Reproductive Health, written by Barbara Romanowski, Director of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Services at Alberta Health, also Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta
  • About VD, a 1974 silent film produced by the National Film Board of Canada, available for viewing at NFB Montreal's CineRobotheque
  • "In the shadow of AIDS", and "Suffering in silence", by Beth Chacey, Gazette Online (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), March 1&2, 1998
  • 1995 syphilis estimates from the World Health Organization Office of HIV/AIDS and STDs
  • Syphilis Testing from The University of Texas Medical Branch, which warns "False-negative results can occur because of failure to recognize prozone reactions"; "False-negative nontreponemal test results are also seen in incubating primary and late syphilis" and "the RPR Card Tests cannot be used for testing cerebrospinal fluids."
  • Syphilis, Chapter 10 of "Screening for Infectious Diseases Among Substance Abusers", Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) #6, a publication of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  • Search NIH Grants available exclusively through the Community of Science Workbench
  • Syphilis/Neurosyphilis Opportunistic Infections, from the Veterans Administration AIDS Information Newsletter, issue 135, March 8, 1996
  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Syphilis, by Rhett J. Drugge, M.D., Internet Dermatology Society, Stamford, Connecticut
  • CSMC NICU Teaching Files: Syphilis, prepared by Sabitha Sehgal, MD, Staff Neonatologist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California
  • Syphilis (Leus) - Treponema pallidum, from Sexually Transmitted Diseases by Richard B. Roberts, M.D., Courseware from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University
  • Infectious Diseases: Screening for Syphilis from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, Second Edition
  • Yahoo! - Health: Diseases and Conditions: Syphilis
  • The STD Homepage: Syphilis
  • Virtual Hospital: Infectious Diseases of the Central Nervous System: Parenchymal Infections: Syphilis, by Gary Baumbach, M.D., Department of Pathology, University of Iowa College of Medicine
  • Information to Live By: Syphilis , published by the American Social Health Association
  • Syphilis from Handbook of Dermatology and Venereology (Social Hygiene Handbook, 2nd Edition), edited by Drs. Lo Kuen-kong, Chong Lai-yin, & Tang Yuk-ming of the Social Hygiene Service, Department of Health, Western District, Hong Kong
  • Syphilis Resources (from the Hellenic Association of Dermatology and Venereology)
  • Aortic Aneurysm - one of the many manifestations of classical tertiary syphilis. For other images of classical syphilis, click here, from the Slide Collection of Pathology and Pathohistology of the 1st Institute of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research, Semmelweis University of Medical Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
  • National Institute of Dermato-Venereology in Budapest (workplace of István Horváth)
  • Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wraclaw, Poland (workplace of Jadwiga Podwiñska)
  • Institut für dermato-venerologische Serodiagnostik, Vienna, Austria (workplace of Bruno Schmidt)
  • Abteilung für Immundermatologie und infektiöse Hautkrankheiten (Division of Immunology, Allergy, and Infectious Diseases), University of Vienna Medical School
  • Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen (workplace of Nils Strandber Pedersen)
  • Justin Radolf, Director, Center for Microbial Pathogenesis, and Professor of Microbiology at the University of Connecticut Health Center
  • Daniel M. Musher at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
  • Konrad Wicher, Professor Emeritus, Syphilis Research Laboratory, and Research Physician, Immunology amp Infectious Disease Program, Wadsworth Center New York State Department of Health
  • Robert E. Baughn at the Department of Immunology at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
  • Steven J. Norris at the University of Texas - Houston Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  • James N. Miller, at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UCLA School of Medicine
  • Sheila Lukehart & Wesley Van Voorhis at the Department of Pathobiology at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
  • Christina Marra, specialist at the Neurology Clinic of the Harborview Medical Center, Seattle
  • University of Washington (UW) Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases
  • IUSTI: International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections
  • Task Force for the Urgent Response to the Epidemics of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, based at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, in Copenhagen
  • Treponema pallidum Molecular Genetics Server, with a directory for the spirochete research community and an e-mail discussion list (see below)
  • Venereology: the Interdisciplinary International Journal of Sexual Health, published by Venereology Publishing Inc. (Australia)
  • Sexually Transmitted Infections (formerly Genitourinary Medicine)
  • Treponema pallidum complete genome (warning: large file - 1.2 MB)
  • Treponema pallidum genome sequence relational database from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Theoretical Biology and BioPhysics
  • References pertaining to Treponemal species from the Molecular Subset of MEDLINE
  • Surface Antigens of the Syphilis Spirochete and Their Potential as Virulence Determinants by David R. Blanco, James N. Miller, and Michael A. Lovett, at the UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California
  • Phoenix Bio-Tech Corp, a Mississauga, Ontario firm involved in the manufacture and evaluation of new tests for syphilis, based on recombinant treponemal antigens, such as the Anti-Treponema pallidium EIA in serum or plasma (IgG, IgM, or IgG/IgM), the Trep-Chek Syphilis of INNO-LIA (Line Immunoassay for the confirmation of antibodies against Treponema pallidium in serum or plasma) and the TREP-STRIP (Point of Care Testing for the detection of antibodies against Treponema pallidium in Serum/Plasma/Whole blood)
  • NIH Collaborative Study of Chronic Neuroborreliosis
  • Gordon Research Conference on the Biology of Spirochetes
  • "A Proposal for the Reliable Culture of Borrelia burgdorferi from Patients with Chronic Lyme Disease, Even from Those Previously Aggressively Treated", by Steven Phillips et al., published in the journal Infection, vol. 26 (1998), p. 364-367 - reporting on a revolutionary technique for culturing previously undetected spirochetes in the blood of patients suffering from chronic lyme disease. Click here to listen to a brief audio clip of Phillips discussing the results of his study
  • "The Complexity of Vector-borne Spirochetes (Borrelia spp)", keynote address by Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, delivered at the 12th International Conference on Lyme Disease and Other Spirochetal and Tick-Borne Disorders, New York City, April 9 & 10, 1999
  • "Implications of the recent lyme culture technique for the diagnosis of syphilis", a poster presented at the above Lyme conference by John Scythes and Colman Jones, who suggest the Lyme culture technique developed by Phillips et al. could serve as an important precedent for the detection of undiagnosed chronic syphilis among AIDS patients (see also press release)
  • "Treponemal Based Screening for Syphilis—Detecting Latent Cases", by Neal denHollander, R. Berry, and M. Fearon of the Ontario Public Health Laboratory, Toronto - poster presented at 2000 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology May 21-25, 2000, Los Angeles, California. See also June 28, 2000 comments by Scythes and Jones, "Insensitive syphilis tests: Implications for HIV/AIDS?"

    • Have your say!

  • A special electronic mailing list has been set up to discuss the evidence suggesting chronic latent syphilis is a major co-factor in HIV activation and disease progression in sexually-acquired AIDS. Contributions from medical professionals - especially those studying the immunopathogenesis of chronic bacterial infections - are especially welcome. To subscribe, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDSsyphilis/join. You can also view the list's public archives online at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDSsyphilis/messages

  • The Spirochete Research Discussion Group, operated by the the Treponema pallidum Molecular Genetics Group, is an easy way to broadcast email messages to the spirochete research community. To post a message to the list, send e-mail to spiroc-l@wvnvm.wvnet.edu. In order to read any responses, you'll need to subscribe, which you can do by sending e-mail to listserv@wvnvm.wvnet.edu and entering the following command in the body of your email message: subscribe SPIROC-L(your name) (i.e. subscribe SPIROC-L John Smith).

  • The Rethink AIDS e-mail discussion list is devoted to the discussion of the need to rethink AIDS research and treatment, set up by Ben Gardiner. To post a message to the list, send e-mail to rethink@queernet.org. Again, in order to read any responses, you'll need to subscribe, which you can do by sending e-mail to majordomo@queernet.org and entering the following command in the body (not the subject) of your email message: subscribe rethink [your e-mail address]

  • The Reappraising AIDS discussion list is a "friendly forum for the advocacy and criticism of science-based AIDS hypotheses". The list is sponsored by The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis, and is moderated by Paul Philpott, the editor of the Group's publication, Reappraising AIDS. To subscribe, send an e-mail to majordomo@binhost.com that contains in the body of the message: subscribe reappraising-aids [your e-mail address].

  • AIDSsoc, a list for the discussion of issues related to the social and political construction and uses of AIDS and HIV. Intended topics will include the use of AIDS science for coercive ends and for the perpetuation of oppressive social systems (racism, homophobia, class structures, "medical imperialism," etc.). Moderated by Greg Nigh.

  • Rethinking AIDS WebBoard, part of the Rethinking AIDS website

  • Does HIV Cause AIDS? Discussion Board, set up by the Valley Advocate

  • Cafe Utne conferences (requires prior registration) :

  • HISTSEX: a discussion list for historians of sexuality, billed as "a place to post announcements of conferences, calls for papers, information about and reviews of new publications, requests for information, points for discussion, concerning Historical perspectives on: heterosexual relations: premarital (illegitimacy, courtship), marital, extramarital (adultery, divorce); same-sex relations; masturbation; prostitution; sexually transmitted diseases; abortion, birth control; sex education; moral reform organisations; legal regulation of sexual behaviour; medical views; sexual science; pornography; censorship; subcultures; 'perversions'/paraphilias. The list already has over 100 members, in Britain, Europe, Australia, North and South America, with a diversity of interests in the field."

    • Other, more mainstream, AIDS-related forums on the World Wide Web include:

  • AIDSTalk.com (AIDS/HIV Treatment Issues conference)
  • AIDS Educational Global Information System (ÆGIS): Forum (AIDS-HIV conference)
  • CDC National Prevention Information Network: HIV/AIDS, STD and Connections bulletin boards
  • The Body: Community Center Treatment (and Alternatives)
  • AIDS Partnership of Michigan BBS
  • Health DEV: Community-research forum
  • Links2Go discussion groups: AIDS, AIDS and HIV (also see Biology and Virology, Bone Marrow Transplants, Clinical Practice, European Molecular Biological Laboratories, Immunology, Infectious Diseases, Medical History, Medical Research, Microorganisms, Molecular Biology, Tuberculosis)
  • National Public Radio: Health & Science: Science Friday Discussions: AIDS Update
  • New York Times on the Web Forums: News Forums: In the News: The AIDS Epidemic
  • Your Health Daily (New York Times Syndicate) AIDS Discussion group
  • Philadelphia Online: Talk Show: AIDS
  • Delphi AIDS Forum Message Board
  • C-Health Talk: AIDS & Sexual Health
  • Community AIDS Treatment Information Exchange's Talking Treatment discussion forum
  • Doctor on Board BBS (requires prior registration): IN- AIDS/HIV Echo (conference 191)
    •  

    Other AIDS-related e-mail discussion lists include:

  • HIV Information Network
  • HIV-DOCS is a discussion list designed to foster the exchange of information among physicians and other clinicians involved in treating people with HIV. To subscribe to the list, send a message to HIV-Docs-Approval@Web-Depot.COM. Let the maintainer know who you are and where you practice. After your subscription request is approved, you will receive a confirmation message.
  • ProCAARE (Program for Collaboration Against AIDS and Related Epidemics)
  • South East Asia AIDS (SEA-AIDS)
  • Usenet newsgroups dealing with AIDS include: sci.med.aids, misc.health.aids, bionet.molbio.hiv, gay-net.aids, hiv.aids.dialogue, hiv.aids.data, hiv.aids.hiv, hiv.alt-treatments, hiv.aidsweekly, hiv.informal.conversations, hiv.med, hiv.med.questions, it.medicina.aids

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  • To write to IDEAS, click here

  • To write directly to Colman Jones, click here

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