cover 6/1 9/10/00 3:30 pm Page 1 O C conscious health for radical times AIDS post-HIV : beat of a different drummer The South African Panel of Inquiry Conference in Uganda CONTINUUM Nutrition and immunity Isolation and rejection - the scientific struggles Vol. 6 No. 1/2 autumn 2000 Vol. UUM CONT IN UU M towards a healthier body politic v o l 6, no 1/2 October 2000 C o n s u l t a n t s Michael Baumgartner ,I.F.A.S., Contents Switzerland Lluis Botinas , Co-ordinator COBRA, 2. First International Holistic AIDS Conference - Uganda. Spain Co-organiser Rosalind Harrison reports Leon Chaitow , ND, DO, MRO, England Kevin Corbett, BA(Hons), HDFA, 6. Life cycle - no handicap! An interview with a test-positive MSc, RGN, England man with attitude! Prof. Peter Duesberg , Molecular Biologist, USA Nigel Edwards , MA (Oxon), 8. HIV diagnosis and the potential of a holistic healing process Journalist/Broadcaster, England - research study on the therapeutic effect of Tai Chi, by Carolyn Michael Ellner , DD, MSH, CHt, Howell President HEAL, USA Felix de Fries, Public Relations Consultant, Switzerland 13. President Thabo Mbeki’s letter to President Clinton and Volker Gildemeister , MA, DPhil Prime Minister Blair (Oxon), Biochemist, England Dmitri Gouskov, PhD, Sociologist, Ukraine 15. Folly or Grace - Joan Shenton’s report on the first South Prof. Alfred Hässig , Immunologist, African AIDS Panel meeting Switzerland Neville Hodgkinson , Author/Journalist, England 22. The Second Meeting - Huw Christie’s report on the followup Christine Johnson , Science meeting in Johannesburg Information Co-ordinator, USA Dr med. Heinrich Kremer , Germany Stefan Lanka, PhD, Virologist, 26. Search for Solutions: Thabo Mbeki’s first interview on Germany HIV/AIDS John Lauritsen , Publisher and Writer, USA Joan Shenton , 29. The Mbeki Challenge: Of Dogma and Debate - A Brief Broadcaster/Journalist, England History by Michael Ellner Prof. emeritus Gordon Stewart , Public Health, England 33. Not in its Nature - the rejected Commentary by Eleni Djamel Tahi, Filmmaker, France Margaret Turner , BEd, Papadopulos-Eleopuos and the Perth Group Writer/Equality Consultant, England Michael Verney-Elliott , 37. Better late than never: the historic letter in Nature from Writer/Journalist, England Ian Young , Poet/Author, Canada minority members of the South African AIDS panel 39. Censorship in an issue requiring debate : Professor Gordon Continuum Stewart and Prof. Etienne de Harven’s rejected letter to Science 4A Hollybush Place, London E2 9QX, U.K. Tel: [+44] (0)171 613 3909 41. Nutrition studies in immunity and AIDS : Linda Lazarides’ Fax: [+44] (0)171 613 3312 extensive, alphabetical compilation of scientific abstracts [email protected] 59. AIDS - A Matter of National Security, by Michael Baumgartner Editor Huw Christie News Nigel Edwards 6 5. International Conference on HIV/AIDS Pro g r a m m e s Including Methods of Testing - Roberto Giraldo reports on the meetings in India earlier this year • Affiliated to the Harrow Association of Voluntary Service, The Lodge, 64 Pinner Road, 70. Book Review - Alex Russell’s report on World Without AIDS Harrow HA1 4HZ. Regd. Charity No: 294136 72. Obituary - Swiss AIDS dissident Prof. Alfred Hässig CONTINUUM vol 6, no 1/2 1 A holistic approach: An intern a t i o n a l conference on the fight against AIDS in Africa Rosalind Harrison was a co-organiser of the recent conference in Nkozi, Uganda. Here she reflects on some aspects of this significant event. Rosalind Harrison is an ophthalmologist in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. She was born in Brisbane, Australia and studied medicine at the University of Queensland and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is co-author of the book AIDS, Racism and Africa and addressed the UN Human Rights Commission on AIDS in Africa in 1997. T h e re have been not one but two intern a t i o n a l Africa from a broad perspective. From Uganda, AIDS conferences in Africa this year. The first, in South Africa, the United States, the United Durban in July, was sponsored by intern a t i o n a l Kingdom, Kenya and Nigeria there were profes- pharmaceutical companies to the tune of millions sors of anthropological history, primary care and of dollars and was attended by 12,000 family medicine, and the political science of delegates. The second conference was a much human nutrition. There were lecturers in political less lavish affair. It took place in late August at a e c o n o m y, primary health care, ethics, and small rural university at Nkozi, Uganda, in s o c i o l o g y, health care professionals fro m beautiful countryside on the shores of Lake Uganda, Nigeria and the United Kingdom. And Victoria. There was no sponsorship; the forty t h e re were AIDS activists from Africa and the delegates paid all their own expenses and United Kingdom who had come to question the stayed in student accommodation. The purpose central tenets of AIDS science after their personal lives, families and communi- ties had been affected by HIV diagnoses. It would seem that no meeting of those who question any aspect of AIDS science is too small to escape the attention of the all pervasive AIDS establishment. Although re p re s e n t a- tives of the Ugandan Govern m e n t and the Ugandan AIDS Commission had been invited to open and attend the conference, pressure was applied to cancel the conference at the last minute. Fortunately the rights to fre e speech and academic freedom were not breached. Instead a compromise of change of title of the confere n c e from "Making sense: An international c o n f e rence on alternative views on of the conference was to bring together acade- the origins and causes of AIDS in Africa" to "A mics, health workers and activists from different holistic approach: An international conference on continents and disciplines to consider AIDS in the fight against AIDS in Africa" was agreed and 3 CONTINUUM vol 6, no 1/2 Europe or America". His contribution to the fight against AIDS was to say that kissing could transmit AIDS. Had he attended the conference at the Uganda Martyrs University he could have learned that poverty, with the inevitable consequences of poor diet, housing, sanitation, and health c a re, is a major cause of immune deficiency without any need for HIV as a co-factor, with solutions that are too obvious to mention. Writing in a personal capacity, although I have been following the medical and scientific activities a round AIDS in Africa for many the content of the conference proceeded as years, I was still shocked to hear and planned. see at first hand the manner of implementation of AIDS science in Africa. In the West no patient Papers were presented that discussed the can be diagnosed with AIDS on clinical grounds stigmatisation of Africa as the origin for and or with a single HIV screening test without confir- c e n t re of the AIDS epidemic and the racist matory tests, and a doctor give an HIV positive s t e reotyping of African sexual behaviour. test result without providing counselling would Powerful critiques were presented of the fear and suspicion generated by AIDS and the promotion of condomi- sation, and the destructive effects this was having on African culture and community values. The caveats of HIV testing technologies, the causes of immune deficiency and the diagnosis of AIDS were presented and discussed in detail, as were the proposals for the prevention of vertical transmission of HIV from mother to child. Delegates spoke of their experi- ences of HIV diagnoses for themselves or family members, and t h e re were presentations and discus- sions on issues of human rights, the ethics of testing and treatment, and the risks of criminalisation of HIV transmission. The conference was given a detailed account of the debate in South be liable to disciplinary procedures, litigation, or Africa and the proceedings of President Mbeki's removal from the medical register. In the resource AIDS panel. In a plenary session at the end of the poor setting of health services in Africa such c o n f e rence delegates drew up proposals for practices are an unaff o rdable luxury, yet inclusion in a conference statement (see below). p roviders of health care in Africa who question whether they may be doing more harm than Concurrently with the conference at the Uganda good are under intense pre s s u re from extern a l Martyrs University, a meeting was organised by donors to deliver substandard care. Anyone who Makerere University and the French Embassy at doubts this should consider for a moment the the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala to which Luc scorn and abuse meted out to President Mbeki. M o n t a i g n e r, the French scientist attributed with He has sought clarification over questions of co-discovery of HIV, was the invited guest. The science, and western AIDS scientists have Ugandan press reported that he was visiting treated him with contempt. When he has stated, Uganda to work with local scientists to find "'co- in the clearest possible terms, that South Africa factors' that make HIV infection as well as has many pressing health needs and does not p ro g ression to AIDS faster in Africa then in have the re s o u rces to monitor patients given CONTINUUM vol 6, no 1/2 4 a n t i re t roviral drugs even if the drugs could be Tests afforded, he has been accused of insanity.