It is now "conventional wisdom" that there is a catastrophic HIV/AIDS
problem in Africa. Tens of millions are said to be infected, millions
die every year and we are informed that the problem continues to
escalate. We receive this education from the mainstream mass media, in
the form of reports from major authorities like US government health
authorities, statistical studies from the World Health Organization
and reports on latest HIV research from retrovirologists. Although it
is never reported in the US mass media, a few of us have also heard
that there is controversy about these claims, and that many scientists
now claim that HIV is harmless or does not even exist. Yet this
appears incredible to most people since it would seem to involve an
impossible conspiracy of all these authorities. However the numbers
and credentials of AIDS "dissenters" suggest that their arguments
should at least be considered.
    In South Africa, a media debate has been raging in recent months
(uncovered in the USA corporate media) between Rian Malan, journalist
and famous South African novelist, and the Treatment Action Campaign
(TAC). The TAC is a heavily funded group which claims to be a grass
roots "AIDS activism" movement and heavily promotes the mass use of
antiretroviral drugs in Africa.
    Malan first smelt a rat when contracted in 1999 for an article to
discredit (then and current) South African president Thabo Mbeki, who
was resisting the use of antiretrovirals in his country. Everyone
thought Mbeki "had gone off his rocker" since the media proclaimed
250,000 dead that year in SA alone. Malan decided to report on the
coffin business in Johannesburg as a graphic way of illustrating the
emergency, but to his surprise found that coffin manufacturers
reported business was rather quiet. The TAC's response was that the
sample he used (the only two coffin makers in the Jo'burg phonebook)
was too small. If the TAC are impartial and concerned for the public
good, one wonders why they did not carry out a similar survey of
coffin makers themselves to investigate this claim.
    In his articles – such as "APOCALYPSE WHEN?" in Noseweek magazine –
Malan reports on various anomalies of the "official" AIDS story. One
concerns the media claim of 60% infection rates in the prison
population. HIV elisa tests have been carried out in the jail at
Grahamstown, SA in recent years giving HIV rates of 3%. In the last 7
years there have been only two deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS – about
one every 3 years. Even Malan seems to miss the incongruity here: a
rate of 3% of 550 inmates is about 20 people, so at the very least one
would expect 4 or 5 to have died last year. This does seem to support
the claims of AIDS "dissenters' that HIV tests are invalid.
    However in Africa it is not even necessary to be tested, for HIV to
be diagnosed. Typical symptoms of tuberculosis or malaria, the
traditionally biggest killers in Africa, satisfy the World Health
Organization's "Bangai definition" of AIDS in developing countries.
Malan's analysis of statistics showed that even the establishment
(Medical Research Council) statistics put AIDS prevalence at about the
same as TB, yet 90 times as much funding is available for AIDS.
African doctors will often diagnose AIDS in cases of TB, since so much
more funding is then available for their patients – further skewing
the statistics. In Botswana the media and the TAC proclaimed in 2003
an unprecedented catastrophe with the population being decimated by
AIDS, based on their usual computer-modeled statistical estimates from
limited data. Unfortunately for them, an actual census report was
released a few months later which showed healthy population growth
rates. This dramatic contradiction was not covered by the corporate
media.
    Of the huge amount of evidence now available challenging the HIV
paradigm, a dramatic example is the "Partage Tanzania" project started
in 1989 by Philippe Krynen and his wife to help "AIDS orphans" (for
example see "Aids in Africa – a field experience" – by Dr Marc Deru).
Over the first couple of years of the project, Krynen – at first a
media spokesman warning of the catastrophe - gradually changed his
opinion of the AIDS crisis. Testing extensively, he noticed that HIV+
children had exactly the same chances of recovery as HIV-, and that
children testing positive after a bout of malaria could be HIV
negative 6 months later. This correlates with other studies showing
that Malaria, TB, pregnancy and dozens of other conditions can give a
false HIV+ reading. In this supposed epicenter of AIDS, Tanzania's
population grew by 49% between 1988 and 2002, yet Krynen records that
no antiretrovirals and until 2000 no condoms were introduced. His
ongoing project demonstrates that the best treatment for Africans with
impaired immune function is good nutrition and clean water. Even Luc
Montagnier, the co-discoverer of the alleged HIV virus, has publicly
stated he is unable to show how HIV can cause AIDS.
The following are a few of the best of hundreds of AIDS dissenting
websites for those interested in this issue: (virusmyth.org;
theperthgroup.com; altheal.org; aliveandwell.org and healtoronto.com),
and for public discussion: AIDSmythexposed.com. Rian Malan's articles
on the issue can be easily found by internet search, and the TAC
responses to Malan can be found on their website.