An Aids Update -1994

AIDS AND HIV

By Lawrence Wilson, MD

Overall, recent news about AIDS is very encouraging. The death rate from AIDS is declining and it is no longer considered an epidemic disease in some nations.
A recent National Research Council Report found that the AIDS epidemic has not spread to the general population at the rate predicted by many experts. HIV infection and AIDS is still largely confined to male homosexuals, intravenous drug users and malnourished, urban poor people. These people are clearly more susceptible to AIDS than others.

Prevention. Health authorities continue to say that condoms permit safe sex. However, condoms have a failure rate of about 14%. To say a condom is safe is about like saying that a gun with only one bullet in it is safe to play with, point at your friends and pull the trigger.

The only prevention for HIV and AIDS is to avoid the high-risk behaviors that are associated with this disease. This includes IV drug use, too many medical drugs, and male homosexuality.

PROSTITUTES AND AIDS

                  Striking new information concerns female prostitutes in Western nations. It was thought that they would become the vectors by which AIDS would spread to the heterosexual population. A single prostitute could infect dozens of men, who would then infect women.
                  However, the rate of infection for prostitutes is only between 5% and 10% in New York and Los Angeles. Also, there are three striking facts about the prostitutes that are infected with HIV. With few exceptions, they are intravenous drug users. Among non-drug using prostitutes, HIV infection is almost unknown.
                  Secondly, in literally only a handful of cases have prostitutes apparently infected their clients. Only about 3% of AIDS cases are attributable to prostitutes. In most of these cases, the client and the prostitute were both drug users.
                  Finally, cases of tertiary transmission are very rare. This is the case where a healthy man is infected by a prostitute, and then infects his wife or girlfriend. This is very good news.

The implications of this are that a lowered immune response, due to drug use or malnutrition, seems to play a very important role in AIDS transmission.

HEMOPHILIACS AND AIDS

                  Another interesting finding is that hemophiliacs infected with HIV do not develop AIDS as often as homosexuals. It is estimated that about 90% or 15,000 hemophiliacs were infected with HIV between 1981 and 1984.
                  One would expect to see about half of these people develop AIDS by now, because that is the proportion of homosexuals who develop AIDS within 10 years. However, only about 1500 cases have been reported. Also, younger and healthier hemophiliacs develop AIDS at a fifth of the rate of older and less healthy hemophiliacs.
                  Again, it appears that a strong immune system and a heterosexual lifestyle plays a critical role in preventing development of the disease. Homosexuals as a group take more antibiotics and have more infections than hemophiliacs. This may weaken the homosexuals' immune system.

RECOVERY FROM AIDS

                  Well-documented cases of recovery from HIV have appeared in several health magazines. Not only did symptoms improve, but blood tests actually changed from HIV-positive to HIV-negative and remained negative on subsequent tests. One such report was in the September/October, 1991 issue of New Age Magazine. Dr. Robert Cathcart, MD, has written about his experience using natural methods such as high-dose vitamin C.
                  These reports fly in the face of the myth that AIDS is a progressive, incurable disease. They reinforce the concept that AIDS is indeed influenced by the status of a person's immune system and other factors such as one’s lifestyle and even thinking style.
                  The medical establishment so far has generally ignored these cases of recovery. This is horrible and very sad to see. The cases of recovery that I know of all required:

1. Avoiding AZT and other standard drug treatment for AIDS.

2. Avoiding too much contact with the standard AIDS community, as these people often infect one with a negative attitude about your chances and what to do.

3. Instead, the person used natural methods including diet, nutritional supplements, detoxification, and mental/spiritual healing methods to strengthen the body and mind. Nutritional balancing is one of these methods that is very effective with HIV/AIDS. However, my personal experience with this condition is limited. Sadly, most HIV-infected people become trapped by the HIV/AIDS doctors and communities and are discouraged from trying healing methods outside of this community. This is the case with several other diseases as well, such as autism and even chronic fatigue syndrome. This is very unfortunate, and may even be considered somewhat sinister.

CONCLUSIONS

The conclusion one must draw from all of the above information is that HIV infection is not like other sexually transmitted diseases. It does not strike randomly. Those who are most susceptible appear to have specific risk factors that facilitate transmission of the disease and/or cause suppression of the immune system. The major risk factors are:

1. Anal intercourse

2. Drug use, either recreational and IV drug abuse, or even too much medical drug use such as taking a lot of antibiotics that can actually suppress the immune system.

3. Prostitutes and those who have sex with those who visit prostitutes are at higher risk.

4. Malnutrition.

This is helpful, because these are fairly easy to control. Other risk factors are not as easy to control and include:

1. Receiving blood transfusions

2. General poor health with multiple infections.

3. Other immune system disorders.

These findings mean that any individual can do a lot to minimize the risk of HIV and AIDS. Indeed, studies in Switzerland and Italy demonstrate that eliminating drug use and malnutrition among infected drug users slows the rate of progression to AIDS threefold compared with those who continue malnourished and on drugs. Drug use (including AZT, which can suppress the immune system) and malnutrition are powerful factors that suppress the immune system.
These reports also indicate that, as a society, eliminating risk factors is potentially an excellent way to control AIDS. It is probably far better than giving out free condoms, legally protecting homosexual behavior, and betting on an elusive drug cure. For more information one can subscribe to Rethinking AIDS, 2040 Polk Street, Suite 321, San Francisco, Ca. 94109.

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