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AIDS Drugs: The Big Question
A one-hour TV program featuring Dr. David Rasnick and Professor Sam Mhlongo
A prime-time television debate on AIDS drugs taped before a live audience in
South Africa. The program features Dr. David Rasnick, a former developer of
protease inhibitors and his colleague, the former head of family medicine at
South Africa's largest teaching hospital, Professor Sam Mhlongo. Together
they challenge the safety and efficacy of anti-retroviral therapy and two
doctors who hold mainstream opinions on the drugs.
Go here and
click on The Big Question.
Almost as informative as the program are Dr. Rasnick's comments:
"Normally the program airs live but our opponents were able to prevent that.
Instead, the show was videotaped with two endings, depending on how the
audience vote turned out. Sam and I won the debate, but it took pressure from
the government, the threat of a law suit and an editorial in a South African
newspaper on freedom of speech to finally get the program aired two weeks
later. There were supposed to be three programs, but the other two never had
a chance. More important than the arguments, I believe, is the difference
between how Sam and I behave compared to our opponents. See what you think..."
A letter to Christine and a reply
By Neville Hodgkinson
The widespread belief that the latest drugs for
fighting AIDS are reducing
death rates has been confounded by a huge study
covering 10 years of
treatment and more than 22,000 patients in Europe and
North America. The
results: No decrease in overall death rates, and in
fact, patients¹ risk of
developing or dying from Aids has actually increased
in recent years.
Scientists Say There's No Proof Taking AIDS Drugs is Better
Than Taking
Nothing
Responding to a study on AIDS drugs published in the Nov.
30, 2006 issue of
the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), scientists from
the non-profit
public interest group Rethinking AIDS state the trial's
conclusions are
flawed and that the idea that AIDS drug interruptions are
dangerous is based
on unproven assumptions. According to Dr. Etienne de Harven,
a pioneer in
virology research and electron microscopy and President of
RA, “The NEJM
study does not provide evidence that taking AIDS drugs is
better than not
taking them..."
The AIDS Debate: The Most Controversial Story You’ve Never Heard
By Liam Scheff
Through a series of questions and answers, various experts simply and
effectively outline the basis for the AIDS debate and the controversy
over
HIV. This is part two of a three part series. Part one covers the AIDS
controversy (see Related Articles in Rethinking AIDS) and part
three
takes on AIDS in Africa (see Related Articles in Africa in
Perspective)
By Anthony Brink
An informative expose on the controversial AIDS treatment drug Nevirapine authored by a South African legal expert. This 200 page document reads like a sophisticated crime novel and the facts it presents are as harrowing and as they are important.
By Celia Farber
"We cannot say that protease inhibitors are useless. In 1996 when they started to use protease inhibitors, there is no doubt that there was a change. Before 1996, all the people who used AZT were killed. There was no benefit there. Protease inhibitors have benefits they are antioxidants. No doubt they are poison and in the long run they kill the person, but you need proteases in the process of oxidation these drugs are also antibiotics."
References
forward to If It's Not HIV...
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