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On June 1, 1993 The Sunday Times of London ran the following
headline story:

THE SUNDAY TIMES

1 AUGUST 1993

NEW DOUBTS OVER AIDS INFECTION AS HIV TEST DECLARED INVALID

by Neville Hodgkinson, Science Correspondent

THE Aids test is scientifically invalid and incapable of
determining whether people are really infected with HIV,
according to a new report by a team of Australian scientists
who have conducted the first extensive review of research
surrounding the test. Doctors should think again about its
use, say the authors.  A positive HIV status has such profound
implications that nobody should be required to bear this burden
without solid guarantees of the verity of the test and its
interpretation, they conclude. The findings, likely to cause
intense debate in the medical fraternity and anguish for many
HIV-positive people, are contained in an article published
by the respected science journal, BioTechnology.
  Many people who appear to be infected with HIV, say the
researchers, can be suffering from other conditions such as
malaria or malnutrition that produce a positive result in
the test. Even flu jabs can produce the same effect. As a
result, predictions by the World Health Organisation (WHO)
that millions are set to die because of being HIV-positive
may be wildly inaccurate.
  The paper also lends powerful support to the theory, held
by growing numbers of scientists that HIV is not the true
cause of Aids. One of its authors, Eleni Eleopulous, a
biophysicist at the Royal Perth Hospital, said this weekend:
 There is no proof that people labeled as  HIV-positive are
infected with such a retrovirus. We should really question
the role of  HIV  in the causation of Aids.
  Overall, the findings  mean the tests have not been
scientifically evaluated , she said.
  The authors say that neither of the two main HIV tests used
have been adequately checked for accuracy. These tests rely
on detecting antibodies to HIV in blood samples, But people
whose immune systems have been activated by several other
conditions, including tuberculosis and multiple sclerosis,
can trigger the same reaction, giving a false-positive result.
  Promiscuous homosexual men, illicit drug users, multiple
blood transfusion recipients - such as haemophiliacs - and
people subject to multiple infections become increasingly
liable to give a positive result the longer their immune system
is weakened, regardless of HIV.
  To have confidence in antibody tests, they must first be
validated by having their results checked against a  gold
standard - that is, isolation of the virus itself. However,
this has never been done with the Aids test. The report adds
that a procedure used to confirm the validity of diagnostic
tests by looking for a virus s genetic material has also been
shown to produce false results and cannot be considered as
synonymous with isolating the virus.
  The Aids tests look for the detection of a protein called
p24, generally considered the equivalent of isolating the
virus. However, it has been detected in one out of 150 healthy
individuals, 13% of people suffering from warts - a condition
that signals a weakened immune system - and 41% of patients
with multiple sclerosis, another immune system disorder.
  Heavy exposure to sperm can also set up an antibody reaction,
especially when entering the body through anal intercourse.
It is another probable source of false-positives.
  The WHO, which is seeking an extra $2 billion(UK) a year
for its Aids prevention programme, estimates that about 14m
people have been infected with HIV worldwide. It claims the
total will reach 30-40m by the year 2,000, and that most will
eventually contract Aids.
  Developing countries are said to face the biggest threat
with Africa alone already having an estimated 8m HIV-infected
people. However, according to the BioTechnology report, these
are the countries where the tests may be at their most
unreliable because of widespread ill-health caused by other
diseases. Severe malnutrition and multiple infections are
especially likely to produce a misleading result in the test.
Claims that current Aids tests are virtually 100% accurate
are based on studies of healthy subjects.
  Eleopulous said that the paper, which underwent detailed
scrutiny by other experts, concentrates on the shortcomings
of one of two main categories of  Aids test  known as  western
blot , generally considered the more definitive of the two.
  However, she said doubts were even stronger over the validity
of the other test, called Elisa. This is usually administered
first but is widely acknowledged to carry a high risk of
false-positives. Screening with Elisa in Russia in 1991
produced 30,000 positive tests, of which only 66 were confirmed
using western blot. In the United States, a study among
military applicants produced 6,000 individuals with an
initially positive but subsequently negative Elisa test.
Dr. Philip Mortimer, of the virus reference division at Britain
s Public Health Laboratory Service, accepted last week that
some fair points about the weakness of the western blot had
been made, but he rejected claims that Elisa was even worse.
He maintained that the situation described in the article
was not typical of this country, where there is less reliance
on western blot.
  An initial positive test would be followed by a combination
of different Elisa tests, although sometimes including western
blot, and a test of a follow-up specimen, said Mortimer. Only
if the positive reactions on both specimens are confirmed,
usually in a reference laboratory, is a positive report issued.
   He believed there was no evidence that people had been
falsely told in Britain that they were HIV-positive.
  The findings have been welcomed by Professor Peter Duesberg,
a top American virologist who maintains that HIV is not the
cause of Aids. He said the evidence helped to explain how
a false correlation  had been found between  HIV  antibodies
and Aids.
  The whole virus hypothesis of Aids is based on this
correlation,  he said.  Its proponents have nothing else;
no mechanism whereby HIV could do the damage attributed to
it, no animal tests, no cure, no vaccine, no virus activity.

  They have nothing conventional in terms of virus-disease
argument, except this correlation with antibodies. If this
study is correct, and I have no reason to doubt it, it means
that even that is now falling apart.
  The findings have already led to a call by the New York
Native, an influential gay newspaper, for legal action against
the American government by relatives of people who have killed
themselves, or suffered toxic effects from taking the
anti-viral drug AZT, as a result of positive HIV tests. Charles
Ortleb, the editor, said:  If the test doesn't work, and if
people really don t know that they are infected, the whole
thing needs to be rethought. (STL 8/1/93)


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