AIDS in Africa: puzzling, harrowing pictures

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Nov, 2005 by Marcus A. Cohen

Charles E. Gilks, a visiting scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, published a paper in the British Medical Journal in 1991, in which he argued that the clinical definition for African AIDS "is an unworkable concept because patients with underlying immunosuppression disorders such as AIDS can not be easily distinguished from chronic disease patients; i.e., pulmonary tuberculosis, renal failure, uncontrollable diabetes, or diarrhea with weight loss." (7) Celia Farber referred to Gilks' paper in her first report, observing that diseases endemic in parts of Africa such as TB, malaria, and parasitic infections can themselves, "independent of HIV ... lead to severe immune depression." (8) She then quoted a warning by Gilks about a pernicious effect of the several AIDS definitions loose in Africa: "Substantial numbers of people who are reported as having AIDS may in fact not have AIDS." (9)

I'll end with another brief excerpt from Farber connected with the African AIDS definitions. She interviewed a French nurse, a man she identified as "Krynen," working with orphans in the Tanzanian region of Kagera, not far from the Ugandan border.

"'If people die of malaria, it is called AIDS,' Krynen said. 'If they die of herpes, it is called AIDS. I've even seen people die in accidents, and it's been attributed to AIDS. The AIDS figures out of Africa are pure lies, pure estimate.'" (10)

My next column and the last in this series on AIDS (December Townsend), will examine the questions I asked earlier here about the extent of heterosexual transmission in Africa and the AIDS epidemic believed to be ravaging sub-Saharan Africa. It will feature comments by Michael Ellner and Dr. Roberto Giraldo.

References

1. Two of Shenton's documentaries on HIV-AIDS won the Royal Television Society Award (UK), and the British Medical Association Award. NewAfrican, Dec. 1998, is the source for this information. Shenton has also published a book on AIDS, Positively False (St. Martin's Press, NY, 1998).

2. Farber C., Out of Africa, part one, Spin, March, 1993.

3. Ibid.

4. Peter Barry Chowka, in Natural Healthline, 1 May 2000, points to John Moore, a researcher at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, NYC, as the ultra-orthodox member saying publicly that it would not be inappropriate to charge HIV skeptics with genocide, and to Canadian virologist Mark Wainberg, president of the International AIDS Society, as the member suggesting that these skeptics warrant criminal prosecution.

5. Farber, op. cit.

6. This whole section on the definitions of AIDS in Africa was synthesized from the following articles: Craven BN, et al, Time consistency and the development of vaccines to treat HIV-AIDS in Africa, Economic Issues, Vol. 8, Part 1, 2003. Rasnick, David and Fiala, Christian, But-what about Africa? (Unpublished paper, 2004; obtainable through GOOGLE, through title.) Dirty tricks over AIDS figures, NewAfrican, April 1998. (This "cover story," except for the first paragraph, is an article by Dr. Christian Fiala about AIDS in Africa.) Farber C., Out of Africa, part one, Spin, March 1993. Many more articles on African AIDS are available at www.virusmyth.com