In the battle between the AIDS virus and the immune system maximum attention has been concentrated on one side of the problem: research for an antiviral therapy or vaccine has taken absolute priority.
Would it not be prudent to spend time and money on the research to improve the efficiency of our natural defences? After all, any disease develops when the balance between the body's natural defences and the disease agents has broken down. By ensuring the efficiency of our immune system within its optimal range, we could prevent not only AIDS but many other diseases.
Some years ago, hysterical panic broke out in the USA over herpes. People would cross the street rather than risk contact with someone sporting a suspicious looking blister.
Scientific researchers insist that most carriers of AIDS will develop the disease and die in five to seven years. There is no proof of this, but as this kind of statement introduces panic and stress, the chances are it is true. The panic and stress will lower their immunity to fight the disease and they will die.
In general, male homosexuals seem to have a lower immunity than average, thus making them more susceptible than others to opportunistic infections, ARC, Kaposi's sarcoma or AIDS. It is not only individuals or groups of people who decide to put themselves into precarious or insecure states of existence of their own accord who incur immunodeficiency, but also individuals, groups and communities of people who have been placed into these states by law, prejudices, economic or social pressure.
According to the USA's Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, black and Hispanic people are approximately three times more likely to develop AIDS than white people.
Likewise, drug addiction increases fear and anxieties and it is mainly these fears and anxieties which reduce the efficiency of the drug abuser's immune system. Most haemophiliacs are already in a lower than normal efficiency of their immunity, and this makes them more susceptible in the first place, not only to AIDS, but to many opportunistic infections. A mother infected by the AIDS virus can transmit it to her child in utero or through her milk. I think we should take into consideration the possibility that a mother could transmit her immunodeficiency to her unborn child, making the child susceptible to all kind of infections. In fact, children born with any deficiency in their immunity, easily develop frequent bacterial infections, coupled with chronic diarrhoea and weight problems. The high incidence of venereal infections among male and female prostitutes increases their immunodeficiency which makes them even more vulnerable to other infections, and to AIDS. In central Africa, the passage from a stabler and more serene tribal or village life to the urban bustle has brought anxiety and stress, and overactivity of the neuroendocrine system which damages people's susceptibility to all kind of diseases including AIDS. Another major group at risk in Africa are the five million displaced persons living in a permanent state of anxiety and stress.
Titles in the press such as: 'AIDS: the new Holocaust' might well make AIDS become a holocaust.
In order to prevent certain diseases of groups at risk, it would often be enough to reduce the tempo, rhythm or eagerness that individuals of that group put into their lifestyle. Male homosexuals do not need to become 'straight' in order to avoid being part of a group at risk. If they could establish their togetherness and relationships on a more mature and a more serene basis they might become less susceptible to infections.
Some people justify sexual liberation and sexual promiscuity, labelling them 'natural drives'. Obsessions or excesses are not, however, 'natural drives' or 'imperatives' but a creation of the human adolescent mind.
It is interesting to note that epidemics played a salubrious role as they often eliminated or reduced excesses. There is also historic evidence that morality, good taste and common sense improved after any epidemic. AIDS could do the same.
Doctors today no longer advise the best medicine for many disorders: a few days' rest from agitation and eagerness, as their patients cannot relax or rest without the aid of damaging tranquillisers. The overconsumption of medical drugs and immunisations might, at least partially, reduce the potential of our immune mechanisms.
The modern tendency to solidify individual autonomy has killed off large families and communities, destroying the sense of belonging. The rapid progress in science and technology could be another damaging factor. The progress is much too quick and too big for us to adapt adequately to it, and this creates instability and confusion, therefore a strain on both our brain and body.
By taking ourselves too seriously, we tend to dramatise everything. This tendency increases tension and strain. Self-ridicule can rid one of over-seriousness. By mocking our over-seriousness, by joking at our pretensions and self-importance, we acquire the joy of living, the best medicine for immunity to diseases.
Experiments carried out by the Common Cold Research Unit in Salisbury, showed that over-serious people were more susceptible to the ordinary cold than cheerful people. What is valid for a cold could be valid for AIDS, ARC and even cancers.
Branko Bokun's pamphlet is available free from him at Vita Books, 2 Chelsea Square, London SW3 (tel 071 352 6919).