Inventing the AIDS Virus, Peter H. Duesberg
Regnery USA 1996, 720 pages, ISBN 0-89526-470-6.

Book Review- Orlando Sentinel

Some months ago I wrote about a book that detailed Peter H. Duesberg's theory that the human immunodeficiency virus is not the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Most of you could not find a copy of the book. Don't feel bad. I couldn't find the publisher. Now I know why.

According to the publisher's preface in a new book, Inventing the AIDS Virus, by Dr. Peter Duesberg, Regnery Gateway stated the other book was self-published by Duesberg's former research assistant who became impatient with Duesberg's insistence on documentation. Regnery Publishing sued, won and got an injunction against the earlier book.

So, now, if you are interested in a full, documented account by Duesberg, himself, of - if he's right - what is probably the greatest scandal in the history of science, you can find this new book at your bookstore. If your store doesn't have the book yet, the volume can be ordered from Regnery or the distributor, National Book Network.

The introduction by Kary B. Mullis, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1993, is worth the price of the book. If you can't afford the book, stand in the aisle and read the introduction.

Mullis says that, while working as a consultant at Specialty Labs in Santa Monica, setting up analytic routines for HIV, he casually asked a colleague for the scientific reference that is the basis for the statement, "HIV is the probable cause of AIDS."

No one could give it to him. No problem, Mullis writes, a computer search would probably turn it up. It did not. The next step, during a long period of time, was to ask scientists at various meetings about AIDS where the reference was that establishes HIV as the cause of AIDS. None could give it to him.

He finally confronted the Pasteur Institute's Dr. Luc Montagnier, who discovered the virus - who also couldn't provide any reference. Here are the Nobel laureate's own words from the introduction:

"There weren't any (references). No one had ever proved that HIV causes AIDS. . . . I like and respect Peter Duesberg. I don't think he knows necessarily what causes AIDS; we have disagreements about that. But we're both certain about what doesn't cause AIDS. We have not been able to discover any good reasons why most of the people on Earth believe that AIDS is a disease caused by a virus called HIV. There is simply no scientific evidence demonstrating that this is true. We have also not been able to discover why doctors prescribe a toxic drug called AZT (Zidovudine) to people who have no other complaint than the presence of antibodies to HIV in their blood. In fact we cannot understand why humans would take that drug for any reason."

Mullis concludes, "We both know to err is human, but the HIV/AIDs hypothesis is one hell of a mistake. I say this rather strongly as a warning. Duesberg has been saying it for a long time. Read this book."

If, indeed, there is no proof that HIV causes AIDS, what's going on? Well, what's going on is a multibillion-dollar business. To paraphrase a British thinker, money corrupts and lots of money corrupts lots of people.

People should get over the notion of the doctor or scientist as God. They put their pants or skirts on just like everybody else. They are subject to the same temptations, the same bad habits, the same ego trips, the same predisposition to rationalization as every other human being.

But Duesberg and Mullis could be wrong. If you don't have an HIV infection, don't go looking for one. To be doubly safe, don't do the other things Duesberg believes destroy the immune system - heavy use of drugs, for example.

If you already have an HIV infection, then get as much advice as you can, and Duesberg's book may be of some help in that regard. Whether HIV is or isn't the cause of AIDS, present orthodox treatment doesn't cure. The best that can be said for it is that it may prolong life - a relative term, keep in mind. Duesberg's book is worth a read.