The following letter was received from Wayne Martin today (22 October
2005).

While doctors struggle to develop a drug against HIV AIDS, a 'real' doctor
(a PhD) may well have found the answer

A possible cheap way of preventing AIDS and Bird Flu
By Wayne Martin

This article is based on the work of Professor Harold Foster Ph.D.,
University of Victoria, BC, Canada.

Here is the story.

My friend, Professor Harold Foster of the University of Victoria, has in
mind that he can put an end to the AIDS pandemic and I think that he may
be right.

First he took note about six years ago of the situation with regard to
selenium in two nations. In Senegal they have a very high content of
selenium in their soil. There less than 1 % of the population is infected
with the HIV. Also in Senegal they have the lowest in the world death rate
from the common kinds of cancer.

In one area of China they have a very low content of selenium in soil
along with an epidemic of the Coxsackie virus and of hepatitis C. This
convinced Foster that selenium was antiviral.

Foster has written about the Coxsackie virus causing deaths from heart
attacks in the area of China with very low selenium in soil. The
government of the PRC has acted on the problem of low selenium causing
high Coxsackie viral infections which, in turn, may cause deaths from
heart attacks. Selenium has been put in table salt and in fertilizers and
supplemental selenium has been added to diet. As a result, the death rate
from Coxsackie viral induced infections and heart arracks has been greatly
reduced.

I have back copies of The Lancet here to 1970. In The Lancet for April 23,
1977 was a report from a hospital in England with the title Coxsackie
Viral Infection and Acute Myocardial Infarction.[1] Of 38 patients in the
hospital for heart attacks, 10 were found to have a Coxsackie viral
infection. The authors were aware of Coxsackie viral induced heart attacks
in China. They thought that as many as one fourth of heart attacks in
England may be caused by a Coxsackie viral infection. It costs about
$150.00 (£83.00) to test for a Coxsackie infection. Testing all patients
with heart attacks would throw light on if we are having Coxsackie viral
induced heart attacks. If so, adding selenium to diet would go far to
prevent such heart attacks.

This is a minor part of Foster's concept.

Of late he has added to selenium the amino acids: cysteine, tryptophan.
and glutamine, and he is getting astounding results in treating patients
with full blown AIDS. He is returning them to a normal life with either a
very low or nil viral count. So Foster first suggested that selenium added
to diet would greatly reduced HIV infections. Now, however, he has added
these three amino acids to treatment and he is going far in the treatment
of late stage AIDS patients.

I have just talked to Foster. He says that one can get the three needed
amino aids from spirulina.

Foster told of a new conquest he has made over a new virus. In Canada a
new virus was attacking pigs. It was very deadly. His selenium and three
amino acid treatment worked like a charm on this pig virus.

There is panic talk off the bird flu causing deaths by the millions. I
asked Foster his thoughts on the bird virus. He said that his three and
one treatment is shaping up to be antiviral in general and could turn out
to be as effective on the bird flu as it has been on the pig virus.

1. Nicholls AC, Thomas M. Coxsackie virus infection in acute myocardial
infarction. Lancet. 1977; 1: 883-4.