First Real Hope for Eradication of HIV

by Pragmatus (Daily Kos)

New Procedure Expands on Sole Cured Patient’s Experience.

Building upon the success of the first-ever cure of someone with HIV/AIDS, a new treatment has been developed that modifies the genetic makeup of the human T-cell to prevent HIV from inserting itself into the cell’s DNA and thus perpetuating the infection.  Developed by Sangamo BioSciences, the treatment, a “zinc-finger” process code-named SB-728, modifies T-cells of persons with HIV/AIDS so that they can no longer be infected by the virus.  Clinical trials, currently in phase II (to determine efficacy), show dramatic results, including some beyond what was originally expected.

READ: Did science really cure the first case of HIV 

http://bit.ly/fW2geP

 

BRITAIN: Government To Offer Free HIV Treatment And Meds For Foreigners

Was HIV proven to be only an "other sexually transmitted infections"?


The British government will grant free HIV treatment to non-citizens.
posted by: joemygod.blogspot.com

Lisa Power, Policy Director for Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “We strongly support this move by the Government to bring HIV in line with all the other sexually transmitted infections which are free from charge on public health grounds. “It makes no sense to deny people medication that dramatically reduces the risk of them passing on their infection to others. “Leaving people without treatment also means the NHS pays far more further down the line when someone’s health fails and they need emergency care. These changes will protect more people from HIV infection in the UK and will save the NHS money in the longer term.”

An estimated 100,000 Brits are HIV positive. For comparison to the United States, there are more than that many in New York City alone.

Vaccination rights attorney Patricia Finn threatened with criminal charges; New York State demands she surrender names of all clients

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

Vaccine rights attorney Patricia Finn is being targeted by the Ninth Judicial District of New York State, which has threatened to strip her of her license to practice law and even file criminal charges against her. Finn is one of several "vaccine rights" attorneys across America who helps parents assert their rights to protect their children from potentially deadly vaccines. She's considered a hero by many, but a villain by the status quo for daring to stand up against the vaccine-pimping medical police state that exists in America today.

I personally interviewed Patricia Finn for InfoWars Nightly News last night (February 27, 2012), and during that interview I saw and read the documents that contain the charges being leveled  against her. PrisonPlanet.TV subscribers can watch the video at www.PrisonPlanet.TV

One document described her vaccine rights advocacy as "threatening the public interest," asserting that her helping parents legally and ethically avoid toxic vaccines somehow puts the public at risk. This accusation makes absolutely no logical sense, of course, given that even the vaccine pushers claim their vaccines offer absolute and total immunity against infectious disease. Therefore, how can an unvaccinated child ever threaten the health of a vaccinated child?

A Healer's View of AIDS

THOUGHTS?

by Martin Brofman, Ph.D.

We are each an energy system. Energy flows through our being, and is directed by our consciousness. When we are healthy, or in balance, the energy flows smoothly.

The flow of energy is regulated by seven energy centers, called chakras.

Any illness or disease can be described as an out-of-balance condition. AIDS (or being HIV positive) is an out-of-balance condition affecting the immune system. The immune system is governed or controlled by the thymus gland, which in turn is regulated by the heart chakra. The heart chakra is that part of our energy system affecting and affected by our perceptions of love.

AIDS, then, is an out-of-balance condition that is in some way related to the individual's perceptions of love.

Why I Quit HIV - by Rebecca V. Culshaw

Rebecca V. Culshaw, Ph.D. (her book), is a mathematical biologist who has been working on mathematical models of HIV infection for the past ten years. She received her Ph.D. (mathematics with a specialization in mathematical biology) from Dalhousie University in Canada in 2002 and is currently employed as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at a university in Texas.

As I write this, in the late winter of 2006, we are more than twenty years into the AIDS era. Like many, a large part of my life has been irreversibly affected by AIDS. My entire adolescence and adult life – as well as the lives of many of my peers – has been overshadowed by the belief in a deadly, sexually transmittable pathogen and the attendant fear of intimacy and lack of trust that belief engenders.
To add to this impact, my chosen career has developed around the HIV model of AIDS. I received my Ph.D. in 2002 for my work constructing mathematical models of HIV infection, a field of study I entered in 1996. Just ten years later, it might seem early for me to be looking back on and seriously reconsidering my chosen field, yet here I am.
My work as a mathematical biologist has been built in large part on the paradigm that HIV causes AIDS, and I have since come to realize that there is good evidence that the entire basis for this theory is wrong. AIDS, it seems, is not a disease so much as a sociopolitical construct that few people understand and even fewer question. The issue of causation, in particular, has become beyond question – even to bring it up is deemed irresponsible.

We're spending billions to develop an HIV vaccine. Why not also focus on building a better condom?

Condoms Suck 

www.laweekly.com

Imagine you're trying to hook up with a date, and he whips out a circa-1999 cellphone. Date over.

Now imagine the evening is going well — really well — and your companion whips out a circa-1799 condom. Date normal.

Condoms, the medical contemporaries of bloodletting and leeches, have not been significantly improved since the 1800s, when rubber first replaced the then-standard animal intestines, which were an upgrade from leather.

We can do better, people.

UC Berkeley professor denies link between HIV and AIDS

BY FRANKLIN KRBECHEK | STAFF

For over 20 years, UC Berkeley professor Peter Duesberg has believed that HIV does not cause AIDS, an opinion that he says has limited his academic career and alienated him from the scientific community.

“You cannot find the (HIV) virus, only antibodies, and it doesn’t spread via sex as it should,” Duesberg said. “HIV is a harmless virus. I have said that before, and I continue to say it.”

Is an “HIV Prevention Pill” Worth It? - AHF SPEAK OUT

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) have expressed interest in establishing guidelines for the use of PrEP. Under the current regulations, a medical provider is allowed to prescribe ART to a HIV negative person. This is called ‘off-label use’ – use of an HIV/AIDS medication for purposes other than treatment of HIV— effectively constitutes PrEP. However, as long as PrEP is not officially sanctioned by the FDA, drug companies cannot market ARTs as a preventative measure to the public. If PrEP is eventually approved by the FDA, pharmaceutical companies stand to make a lot of money catering to a new market in the developed world instead of providing cheaper—and much needed—drugs in the developing world.

"Positively False" – HIV and AIDS Documentary - London Screening and Q & A

Positively False – Birth of a Heresy. Joan Shenton reaches back to 1987 through her extensive archive of broadcast and non-broadcast video material on HIV and AIDS combining it with current footage.

In this documentary dissident scientists, journalists and activists are voicing their concerns about the way the infectious hypothesis for AIDS took over from the toxic one and highlights the impact the dogma surrounding a viral cause for AIDS has had on people’s lives. The film travels through Africa, Europe and the United States revealing the way plague terror, financial objectives and scientific skullduggery have led to tragic examples of toxicity and death from antiviral drugs, social stigma, broken families, fear of sex, homophobia and imprisonment. Positively False – Birth of a Heresy is produced by Meditel Productions Ltd andThe Immunity Resource Foundation in association with Yellow Productions. 

What’s next for the HIV/AIDS vigilantes at Treatment Action Campaign?

by Henry Bauer

Just a couple of months ago, I noted that the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa had urged the Gates Foundation not to proceed with trials comparing stavudine to tenofovir because stavudine is so much more toxic and should simply be replaced by tenofovir forthwith. I noted too how strange this seemed, given that the toxicity of tenofovir is high and well known, as I had noted in several posts; see“HAART is toxic: Mainstream concedes it, in backhanded ways” (2011/12/30).
What will TAC do next, given that the toxicity of tenofovir is becoming talked about increasingly?

Liam Scheff and Robert Scott Bell Health Freedom Expo HIV AIDS Promo

HIV Tests Are Not HIV Tests. WHAT? part 2

Exploring more from the posting HIV Tests Are Not HIV Tests. WHAT?  dated FEBRUARY 7, 2012. Henry H. Bauer, Ph.D. adds:

Abstract

HIV tests do not detect HIV. The seminal papers did not demonstrate HIV to be the cause of AIDS. The patent based on this work did not demonstrate that HIV tests are specific for HIV. The progression from “HIV is the probable cause of AIDS” to “HIV antibodies demonstrate active infection by HIV” came by assertion and not evidence. HIV-test-kits do not claim that the test detect infection, and they have never been approved for that purpose. There is no gold standard for an HIV test, and the existing tests are at best adjuncts to clinical diagnosis.

Drastic consequences include that healthy individuals are subjected to iatrogenic harm through life-long intake of highly toxic medication.

Introduction

So-called “HIV tests” do not detect infection by HIV (human immunodeficiency virus, a retrovirus), even though for more than a quarter century these tests have been widely used precisely as purported diagnosis of such infection. The manufacturers of the test kits do not claim that the tests detect infection, nor has the Food and Drug Administration approved the tests for that purpose, and authoritative discussions of how to detect HIV infection make plain that the tests are insufficient to diagnose infection.

The story behind this circumstance has a number of parts:

1.     The initial claimed discovery or identification of a retroviral cause of AIDS.

2.     The patented method for detecting antibodies claimed to be specific to human immunodeficiency virus.

3.     A progression from claiming to find antibodies to presuming that presence of antibodies signifies active infection --- without the benefit of any specific evidence to that effect and in the face of evidence to the contrary.

4.     In absence of any gold standard test, the first (unproven, unvalidated) antibody test has been the basis for supposed validation of all later tests.

The consequences of the mistaken equating of “HIV-positive” with “infected by human immunodeficiency virus” could not be more serious. Healthy individuals who happen at some time to test “HIV-positive” have suffered physical, psychological or financial damage as a result of such a “diagnosis”; particularly harmed have been gay men and people of African ancestry.

In the following, when citing early work that employed the nomenclature of HTLV-III and LAV, those terms are used rather than the now-agreed term “HIV.”

Conflicting data on bone fracture link to HIV meds

The EATG
Whether specific drugs such as tenofovir increase the risk, reduce the risk, or have a variable effect over time remains unclear.

Overall, use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) appears to be associated with a decreased likelihood of bone fractures among people with HIV, but whether specific drugs such as tenofovir increase the risk, reduce the risk, or have a variable effect over time remains unclear based on conflicting data reported in the February 1, 2012, advance online edition of AIDS.

Numerous studies over the course of the epidemic have found that HIV positive people are more likely to have low bone mineral density (BMD) and bone loss (osteopenia, or the more severe osteoporosis) compared with the general population. It is not clear whether this is related to HIV itself, inflammatory or metabolic changes associated with chronic viral infection, effects of antiretroviral therapy, or some combination of factors -- nor is it certain whether low bone density actually leads to greater incidence of fractures.

ART Reduces Risk

In the first analysis, Linda Mundy from GlaxoSmithKline and colleagues assessed the risk for fractures associated with time-dependent exposure to different antiretroviral drugs.

ESPN to Show Film About Magic Johnson’s H.I.V. Disclosure

When Magic Johnson (read a love letter to Magic Johnson) revealed on Nov. 7, 1991, that he had contracted H.I.V., the stunning announcement rippled across the National Basketball Association and professional sports, and changed the way that H.I.V./AIDS was discussed. Now, more than 20 years later, ESPN and the N.B.A. are preparing a documentary about Mr. Johnson’s decision to go public with his diagnosis, from a director who says that he doesn’t want to see H.I.V./AIDS disappear from the national conversation.

Dr. Nancy Padian 10-year study on HIV transmission 

You want to know how Magic Johnson knows today? ask Bill Plaschke LA Times reporter 

"It's exercise and faith and three pills twice a day. "

I beg him to give me the name of the three pills. He says everyone asks, but his doctors have sworn him to silence for the sake of those who might try to use those three pills to self-medicate.

What the REAL reason he won't answer this question?

On Friday ESPN Films and NBA Entertainment are expected to announce that they will present the documentary, called “The Announcement,” on ESPN starting on March 11. It is directed by the filmmaker and writer Nelson George. (Mr. George has been a contributor to The New York Times.)

Luc Montagnier, HIV  discoverer, Nobel Prize Winnersays HIV Can Be Cleared Naturally

Why Haven't Condoms Evolved?

andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com
The pleasure-deadening devices "have not been significantly improved since the 1800s, when rubber first replaced the then-standard animal intestines." Paul R. Abramson and L.J. Williamson can't understand why:

[A]lthough we've been chasing an HIV-prevention vaccine since 1984, we've still got nothing to show for it. Imagine how far those same hundreds of millions could go toward the development of a better-feeling condom — a condom people would actually wear. After all, there is one area in which condoms don't suck: They prevent sexually transmitted infections. To date, we haven't even found a vaccine to prevent one of the many strains of HIV. Even if an omnipotent AIDS vaccine were developed, it would still leave untouched syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and every other sexually transmitted infection. Compare that to the simplicity of the one-size-fits-all-diseases barrier method: the simple condom. Chasing a vaccine has so far been a losing game. But a great-feeling condom could be an epic win.

(Image: 110-year-old condoms made from the swim bladders of fish)

“Why have I to believe that the AIDS test meaning is equivalent to an infection with the HIV virus?

ANALYSIS OF THE ANTIBODY TESTS 
by: Fabio Franchi   Specialista in Igiene,   Medicina Preventiva   e in Malattie Infettive  Trieste
http://www.cesil.com/0898/enfrah08.htm


The tests of the antibodies we shall examine are the Elisa, the Western Blot, the p24 antigen capture assay.

ELISA (Pict. 1) 


In Italy, the screening test (ELISA), “provided with a good sensibility (near 99%) and a lower specificity, valued about 90-95% in 1988”(4), is used at first to identify the HIV infection. However these percentages must not deceive, in fact the test predictive value changes depending on the infection prevalence in a certain population. According to a theory expressed in 1988 by the AIDS National Commission (4), in case of screening of the Italian prison population, in comparison with 6,902 real positive individuals there should have been 1.751 false positive; on the contrary, in case of blood donors, in comparison with 198 real positive, a good 999,990 should have been false positive (505 times more!). In the over mentioned text (2) the authors assert that the progressive improvements took sensibility of the test to 95% and its specificity to 99.8%, in high-risk population. Nevertheless they admit that “the positive predictive value can greatly fluctuate depending on the population they study”. Actually this happened. Depending on the information published on the English authoritative medical magazine The Lancet (5), in 1990 on 20.2 million ELISA tests made in Russia, 20,000 were positive, but only 112 were confirmed by the WB; in 1991, on 30 million ELISA tests, a good 30,000 were positive, but of these only 66 were confirmed by the Western Blot, that is a minimum percentage (0.002%). 
“Then as the ELISA test has been planned to optimize the sensibility to the detriment of the specificity, it should not be used by itself for the HIV-1 infection diagnosis without a confirmation test (2), although in some Countries is used alone.

Tenofovir, Leading HIV Medication, Linked with Risk of Kidney Damage

By Steve Tokar www.ucsf.edu/news

Tenofovir, one of the most effective and commonly prescribed antiretroviral medications for HIV/AIDS, is associated with a significant risk of kidney damage and chronic kidney disease that increases over time, according to a study of more than 10,000 patients led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Michael G. Shlipak, MD, MPH

The researchers call for increased screening for kidney damage in patients taking the drug, especially those with other risk factors for kidney disease.

In their analysis of comprehensive VA electronic health records, the study authors found that for each year of exposure to tenofovir, risk of protein in urine – a marker of kidney damage – rose 34 percent, risk of rapid decline in kidney function rose 11 percent and risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD) rose 33 percent. The risks remained after the researchers controlled for other kidney disease risk factors such as age, race, diabetes, hypertension, smoking and HIV-related factors.

HIV Experts Propose New Pathway for Conducting Phase 3 Drug Trials

By Forum for Collaborative HIV Research

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2012 -- New Approach Intended to Remove Barriers to Innovation in Drug Development

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the war on HIV/AIDS begins its fourth decade, and NO CURE and NO one has lived with these current DRUGS, medical researchers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, patient advocates and government regulators face a new and unexpected scientific challenge: how to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of promising new antiretroviral drugs when the two traditional study designs – the superiority trial and the non-inferiority trial – are no longer useful in showing improvements in both "treatment experienced" patients and those who have never received drug therapy (treatment-naive patients).

HIV/AIDS Vaccine from Canada received the green light by U.S. FDA officials to begin Human Trials

By DAVE SMITH  The International Business Times 
Canadian researchers from the University of Western Ontario in London claim they have developed a promising HIV vaccine, which has received the green light by U.S. FDA officials to begin testing on humans.

"We started the basic science research two decades ago,"said Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, the lead researcher for the project. "The vaccine development, we started 10 years ago. This is incredible for us to get to this stage of development."

This HIV vaccine, called "SAV001," was developed with the support from Sumagen Canada, a biotech company designed to drive clinical development of Kang's work. It is the only HIV vaccine currently being developed in Canada.

The first of three clinical trials began in January, which used 40 volunteers that already had the HIV virus. The experimental medicine was awarded funds on Jan. 12 to support clinical trials of the vaccine

Those with HIV obliged to disclose status to sexual partners

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

At the heart of the HIV disclosure case before the Supreme Court of Canada on Wednesday is the notion that those infected have a right to privacy and autonomy – a right that manifests itself in not having to tell a prospective sex partner that they have HIV: If the infected individuals are receiving effective treatment or if they use a condom, it’s their right to remain, as it were, silent.

HIV Tests Are Not HIV Tests. WHAT?

HIV tests do not detect HIV or HIV antibodies.  HIV tests detect antibodies.  Period.  Test manufacturers claim that their tests are 99 percent accurate for sensitivity and specificity.

SENSITIVITY measures how often a test is positive when you already know what you are testing for is present.  SPECIFICITY expresses how often a test is positive when a patient DOES NOT have the condition.

In all HIV test literature, sensitivity and specificity are not based on measurements of the test against an isolated virus, but is a concordant measure between two tests that do not detect HIV or HIV antibodies.  Careful examination of the manufacturer’s label information makes this clear contrary to their claims of sensitivity and specificity of 99.9 percent.  The vast majority of these reported measures of accuracy have nothing to do with whether HIV is present, but how well one test performs as compared to other tests already on the market.  These measures of accuracy refer to the concordance between two tests; namely, how often a new test says a sample is positive when one already on the market says it is positive (sensitivity), and how often it is negative (specificity).  Given the fact that all HIV antibody tests are based on the same molecular principles and built from the same portfolio of basic molecular building blocks, their remarkable concordance is not surprising.

However, even if two different tests demonstrate 100 percent concordance, that does not justify the use of either for purposes other than what they have been validated and approved for.  By analogy, if two different manufacturers were to construct two different timepieces using the same specifications for the gears and wheels, only to put them in different casings, it is very likely that these two clocks would perform quite similarly.  However, even if there were greater than 99.9 percent concordance between these two timepieces, one cannot conclude that either clock measures time accurately.

HIV tests are so notoriously inaccurate that ALL FDA-approved HIV test package inserts warn clinicians that persons who test positive can only be “PRESUMED to be infected.”