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By Paul Philpot

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Does HIV exist? Do HIV tests indicate HIV infections?
Here's why some scientists say no.

How an Australian biophysicist and her simple observations have taken center stage among AIDS reappraisers.

Of course HIV exists--I've seen pictures of it in text books and on the news--and scientists work with it every day. How could there be HIV tests if there's no HIV? What those tests detect, that's HIV...

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By 1987 the plasma and T4 cells of thousands of AIDS patients had been tested for evidence of the proteins and genetic material from Gallo's "isolates." The AIDS reappraisal movement grew out of Duesberg's critique of these data. HIV exists, but the blood contains so little of it, and it infects so few T4 cells, and replicates--harmlessly--in vitro with so much difficulty, and so many patients test negative for it altogether, that it is just too ineffectual, inactive, and imperfectly correlated with AIDS to explain AIDS.

Out of Australia: Questioning HIV's existence

Before Duesberg's 1987 paper made it to press, a second academic, authoritative deconstruction of HIV had already been submitted for publication in another journal. This one was written by Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, a medical physicist at Australia's Royal Perth Hospital. In 1988 France's Medical Hypotheses (25:151-162) published her paper, "Reappraisal of AIDS: Is the Oxidation Induced by the Risk Factors the Primary Cause?" Papadopulos had independently reached many of Duesberg's conclusions, but ultimately had quite a different take on Gallo's claims: "Unlike other viruses [HIV] has never been isolated as an independent stable particle."

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Without true isolates of the objects declared "HIV," there really is no way to determine if they constitute what HIV is claimed to be: a retrovirus of exogenous origin (an autonomous entity unaccounted for by a person's inherent DNA library). There is no way to pull proteins and genetic material out of a heterogeneous sample and know that they came from one group of particular looking objects rather than another, or simply from the surrounding molecular soup.

Oxidative stress: Unifying AIDS, its causes, and "HIV"

In addition to introducing an HIV critique based on the principal of viral isolation, Papadopulos also unveiled in her 1988 paper an explanation for AIDS based on the process of oxidative stress. According to Papadopulos, the stimulants used to induce "HIV" phenomena (retrovirus-looking objects plus certain proteins that may or may not be affiliated with those objects) in cultures are oxidizing agents . As are the factors uniting American AIDS patients, including street drugs, hemophilia treatments, and rectally deposited semen. Papadopulos proposed that both "HIV" phenomena and AIDS conditions are consequences of these and other stressors she would introduce in later papers (such as blood transfusions, anti-AIDS pharmaceuticals including AZT, and antibiotics).

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That same year, 1992, Papadopulos formed a writing team with two University of Western Australia physician-professors, Valendar Turner of the Department of Emergency Medicine, and John Papadimitriou, Professor of Pathology. Together they published "Oxidative Stress, HIV, and AIDS" (Res-Immunol. 143:145-148), which restated her Unified AIDS Theory.

Virus tests without virus isolation?

In 1993 Papadopulos finally caught the attention of AIDS reappraisers. "Is A Positive Western Blot Proof of HIV Infection?" appeared in Bio/Technology (11:696-707), a major medical journal and sister publication of Nature.

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And what about the real accuracy of HIV tests? That is, accuracy established using the only valid gold standard: isolation from fresh plasma. The Australians reason that since isolation from fresh plasma has not been achieved under any circumstance, then the true accuracy for all "HIV tests" should be considered zero , and all positive results should be regarded as false. There is no basis for thinking that a virus observed only in stimulated cultures exists in the plasma of any humans, even those who test positive for it as determined by antibody, antigen, "viral load" or any other assay.

"HIV": Normal cellular residents?

In the Bio/Technology paper, Papadopulos examined what are accepted as substitutes for true HIV isolation. These include "HIV proteins" (gp160, gp120, gp41, p32, p24, and p17), reverse transcriptase, "HIV" DNA and RNA, and retrovirus-looking objects. She suggests that they are each cellular constituents, some normal, some produced in response oxidative stress.

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(6) The existentialists hypothesize that the retrovirus-looking objects in electron micrographs of heterogeneous samples from AIDS patients are identical retroviruses, HIV, that consist of the "HIV" proteins and RNA abstracted from those samples; Papadopulos explains that since those samples are heterogeneous, there's no way to match the retrovirus-looking objects to any material abstracted from the samples, that retrovirus-looking objects are common products of stimulated T-cells, and that such objects are not necessarily viruses of any sort and can be proven to be so only when examined as isolates.

HIV antibodies as autoantibodies

Although the "HIV proteins" haven't been shown to be constituents of a virus, they are the constituents of the ELISA and Western blot antibody tests for HIV. If Papadopulos is correct that these are ordinary cellular proteins, why would humans express antibodies against their own cellular proteins, a condition called autoimmunity ? And why would such antibodies correlate (however imperfectly) with AIDS conditions and AIDS risks?

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In non-industrial regions such as those in Africa where lots of AIDS patients reside, Papadopulos shows that HIV antibody tests (the only sort of HIV tests used there) cross-react with antibodies against numerous ordinary microbes and parasites that are rampant there due to extremely impoverished living standards. AIDS conditions in these regions, she says, result from those cross-reacting infections, other infections common among impoverished people, and poverty itself.

Proving causation: another need for isolation

Papadopulos' group published another 1993 paper, "Has Gallo Proven The Role of HIV in AIDS?", in the Australian journal Emergency Medicine (5:113-123). This paper presented much of the same data and arguments about the lack of HIV isolation offered in the Bio/Technology paper. But where that paper examined the absolute requirement of viral isolation for constructing and validating viral tests, this paper examined the absolute requirement of viral isolation for demonstrating a causal relationship between a virus and a disease.

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The Australians emphasized that no researcher since 1984 has improved on Gallo's very weak case for HIV as a cause of AIDS.

All antibodies non-specific

The Bio/Technology paper presented a long list of non-HIV agents that can cause positive reactions on HIV ELISA and Western blot antibody tests. This is very bad news for those tests.

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Gallo and the other existentialists, Papadopulos explains, simply assume that their "HIV proteins"--and antibodies against them--always indicate a virus made from those proteins, and nothing else. They base this assumption on no data, and no wonder. Only isolation--which none of them has achieved--can demonstrate this sort of specificity. Furthermore, Papadopulos' list of cellular sources for each "HIV protein," and her list of non-HIV entities that cause reactions with "HIV" antibody tests, absolutely falsify the specific antibody ideal for HIV.

False positives

Papadopulos explains that there is no such thing as specific antibodies against any microbial agent. All viral tests (including properly constructed ELISAs and Western blot tests for properly characterized viruses) "cross react" with entities other than their intended targets.

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In the strange case of HIV and AIDS, though, even testing people in the AIDS risk groups is a dubious enterprise. This is because the official risks that define these groups (rectal intercourse, unsterile needle use, blood product injections, residency in impoverished nations), involve exposure to non-HIV factors that cause cross-reactions with these tests.

Virologist Lanka supports Papadopulos

The Bio/Technology paper influenced most reappraisers to question the validity of "HIV" tests, mostly on the grounds of cross-reactivity. Few seemed to appreciate that the isolation question was the real crux of the matter. The question of HIV's actual existence seemed just too big for most reappraisers to tackle. Then along came a young German virologist, Stefan Lanka, co-author of an academic paper that properly established the existence of a marine virus, ectocarpus siliculosis .

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This exchange created such interest--and Continuum 's editor-ial board was so persuaded by Lanka's argument--that the magazine in its January/February 1996 issue posted a 1,000 "Missing Virus Reward" for anyone who could produce a micrograph of a proper "HIV" isolate.

Papadopulos answers the first challenge

In April, 1996, the National AIDS Manual (NAM) Treatment Update published an editorial answering the Continuum challenge. NAM made no claim on the prize, conceding an absence of the micrograph specified by the reward. Instead, NAM argued against the need for such a requirement in establishing the existence of a virus.

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Until then, nobody knows what the objects purported to be "HIV" are in any of the "HIV micrographs."

Duesberg demurs, Lanka descries

By the July/August issue, Continuum 's reward had increased to 25,000, and none other than Peter Duesberg wrote in to claim the prize. Conceding that there existed no such micrograph as that sought by Papadopulos and Lanka, Duesberg argued that existing data "exceeded the [Papadopulos/Lanka] criteria" for virus isolation: the isolation of "infectious full length HIV DNA" from "HIV-infected cells," and the detection of this DNA in some T4-cells of nearly 100% of people who test positive for "HIV antibodies," but in nearly 0% of those who test negative.

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limiting his objections to the relatively minor aspect of whether HIV could cause AIDS or not, whereas he really ought to have smelt a rat regarding the whole concept of retroviruses. ...Indeed, the extraordinarily artificial and circumscribed conditions under which reverse transcription could be induced in the laboratory should have alerted everyone to the extreme improbability of such exclusively laboratory conditions having any bearing whatsoever on naturally occurring phenomena .

The Papadopulos treatise

Papadopulos' rebuttal was an exhaustive exposition entitled "The Isolation of HIV: Has It Really Been Achieved? The Case Against," included as a 24-page supplement. She asserted that until a virus has been isolated according to the criteria required by the Continuum reward, its constituents--including genetic material and proteins--cannot be cataloged. So there is no basis for a viral explanation for this correlation.

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Papadopulos stresses that her argument against the existential hypothesis of HIV does not require that her alternative hypothesis be correct. Since the existence of HIV is not a default hypothesis, we are not obligated to assume that HIV exists in the absence of a better explanation. To the contrary, until unambiguous evidence is provided for HIV--in the form of a proper viral isolate--explanations for the data are open to suggestions. As far as the Australians are concerned, the viral model has been thoroughly examined, and it comes up empty. It's time to propose and study some new ideas.

The Duesberg-Papadopulos dichotomy

Papadopulos' advocacy of a non-viral explanation for microbiological phenomena labeled as "HIV" remarkably resembles Duesberg's advocacy of a non-HIV explanation for pathological phenomena labeled as "AIDS": (1) Duesberg explains that the HIV-AIDS correlation is not as high as it's made out to be; Papadopulos makes the same claim about the HIV protein-DNA/RNA correlation; (2) Duesberg shows that the microbiological data unqualifiedly exclude a role for HIV; Papadopulos shows that the microbiological data unqualifiedly exclude definitive evidence of a virus; (3) Both say we should therefore consider non-viral explanations; and (4) Duesberg says that even if the alternative hypotheses are ultimately falsified, the HIV-AIDS model is not consequently resurrected, because it fails all on its own; Papadopulos says the same thing about the HIV existential model.

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The Australian response is summarized in the title, "Why No Whole Virus?", and reemphasized points made in their previous exposition.

Electron microscopy

More interesting was Lanka's second rebuttal to Duesberg, which included some new insights. Lanka expounded on the implications of a lack of "HIV isolates" despite dogged efforts. This should not be so for a virus that exists. Lanka writes:

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"'HIV' has never been identified as a secure biological entity," he concludes. "The logical explanation given that all the characteristics ascribed to 'HIV' are well-known cellular entities and characteristics, is that 'HIV' never was, and the claim of the existence of 'HIV' is not sustainable."

On hemophilia-AIDS, T4 counts, and African AIDS

Papadopulos' contribution to the AIDS reappraisal movement transcends the discussion of HIV's existence. Remember that she unifies all the proposed causes of AIDS, and even the agents required for "HIV" expression, by a common denominator: they all cause oxidative stress. She also shows that oxidation is a logical source of many diseases, including all that qualify as "AIDS."

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The Australians show that problematic testing is the more likely explanation. Malaria, tuberculosis, and other tropical microbes that are widespread in Africa feature proteins that elicit the same antibody response as some of the "HIV proteins." HIV proponents have not accounted for this in any of their experiments. They simply assume that Africans who test positive are indeed infected by HIV, when these tests may instead be indicating very common and conventional infections.

Gordon Stewart joins Papadopulos

"It seems tragic," Duesberg said in one of his Continuum papers, "that over 99% of the AIDS researchers study a virus that does not cause AIDS and that the few who don't are now engaged in a debate over the existence of a virus that doesn't cause AIDS."

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