Aids (2319 words) Essay Example For Students

Aids (2319 words) Essay AidsUS MonsterIn an extensive article in the Summer-Autumn 1990 issue of TopSecret, Prof J. Segal and Dr. L. Segal outline their theory that AIDS is aman-made disease, originating at Pentagon bacteriological warfare labs at FortDetrick, Maryland. Top Secret is the international edition of theGerman magazine Geheim and is considered by many to be a sister publication tothe American Covert Action Information Bulletin (CAIB). In fact, Top Secretcarries the Naming Names column, which CAIB is prevented from doing by theAmerican government, and which names CIA agents in different locations in theworld. The article, named AIDS: US-Made Monster and subtitledAIDS its Nature and its Origins, is lengthy, has a lot ofprofessional terminology and is dotted with footnotes. AIDS FACTS Thefatal weakening of the immune system which has given AIDS its name (AcquiredImmuno-Deficiency Syndrome), write the Segals, has been traced backto a destruction or a functional failure of the T4-lymphocytes, also c alledhelper cells`, which play a regulatory role in the production of antibodies inthe immune system. In the course of the illness, the number of functionalT4- cells is reduced greatly so that new anti-bodies cannot be produced and thedefenceless patient remains exposed to a range of infections that under othercircumstances would have been harmless. Most AIDS patients die fromopportunistic infections rather than from the AIDS virus itself. The initialinfection is characterized by diarrhea, erysipelas and intermittent fever. Anapparent recovery follows after 2-3 weeks, and in many cases the patient remainswithout symptoms and functions normally for years. Occasionally a swelling ofthe lymph glands, which does not affect the patients well-being, can beobserved. After several years, the pre-AIDS stage, known as ARC (Aids- RelatedComplex) sets in. This stage includes disorders in the digestive tract, kidneysand lungs. In most cases it develops into full-blown AIDS in about a year, atwhi ch point opportunistic illnesses occur. Parallel to this syndrome, disordersin various organ systems occur, the most severe in the brain, the symptoms ofwhich range from motoric disorders to severe dementia and death. This set ofsymptoms, say the Segals, is identical in every detail with the Visna sicknesswhich occurs in sheep, mainly in Iceland. (Visna means tiredness in Icelandic). However, the visna virus is not pathogenic for human beings. The Segals notethat despite the fact that AIDS is transmitted only through sexual intercourse,blood transfusions and non- sterile hypodermic needles, the infection has spreaddramatically. During the first few years after its discovery, the number of AIDSpatients doubled every six months, and is still doubling every 12 months nowthough numerous measures have been taken against it. Based on these figures, itis estimated that in the US, which had 120,000 cases of AIDS at the end of 1988,900,000 people will have AIDS or will have died of it by the end of 1991. It isalso estimated that the number of people infected is at least ten times thenumber of those suffering from an acute case of AIDS. That in the year 1995there will be between 10-14 million cases of AIDS and an additional 100 millionpeople infected, 80 percent of them in the US, while a possible vaccination willnot be available before 1995 by the most optimistic estimate s. Even when suchvaccination becomes available, it will not help those already infected. Theseand following figures have been reached at by several different mainstreamsources, such as the US Surgeon General and the Chief of the medical services ofthe US Army. AIDS does not merely bring certain dangers with it; it isclearly a programmed catastrophe for the human race, whose magnitude iscomparable only with that of a nuclear war, say the Segals. Theylater explain what they mean by programmed, showing that the viruswas produced by humans, namely Dr. Robert Gallo of the Bethesda Cancer ResearchCenter in Maryland. When proceeding to prove their claims, the Segals arecareful to note that: We have given preference to the investigativeresults of highly renowned laboratories, whose objective contents cannot bedoubted. We must emphasize, in this connection, that we do not know of anyfindings that have been published in professional journals that contradict ourhypotheses. DISCOVERING AIDS Th e first KNOWN cases of AIDS occurred in NewYork in 1979. The first DESCRIBED cases were in California in 1979. The viruswas isolated in Paris in May 1983, taken from a French homosexual who hadreturned home ill from a trip to the East Coast of the US. One year later,Robert Gallo and his co-workers at the Bethesda Cancer Research Center publishedtheir discovery of the same virus, which is cytotoxic. ( i.e poisonous to cells) Shortly after publishing his discovery, Gallo stated to newspapers that thevirus had developed by a natural process from the Human Adult Leukemia virus,HTLV-1, which he had previously discovered. However, this claim was notpublished in professional publications, and soon after, Alizon and Montagnier,two researchers of the Pasteur Institute in Paris published charts of HTLV-1 andHIV, showing that the viruses had basically different structures. They alsodeclared categorically that they knew of no natural process by which one ofthese two forms could have evolved int o the other. According to the professionalscience magazine, the fall 1984 annual meeting of the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), was almost entirely devotedto the question of: to what extent new pathogenic agents could be produced viahuman manipulation of genes. According to the Segals, AIDS was practically thesole topic of discussion. THE AIDS VIRUS The Segals discuss the findings ofGonda et al, who compared the HIV, visna and other closely-related viruses andfound that the visna virus is the most similar to HIV. The two were, in fact,60% identical in 1986. According to findings of the Hahn group, the mutationrate of the HIV virus was about a million times higher than that of similarviruses, and that on the average a 10% alteration took place every two years. On the Road Essay PaperDissecting each claim, they show that they have no scientific standing,providing also the findings of other scientists. They also bring up thearguments of scientists and popular writers who have been at the task ofdiscounting them as conspiracy theorists and show these writersshortcomings. Interested readers will have to read the original article tofollow those debates. I will only quote two more paragraphs: We oftenheard the argument that experiments with human volunteers are part of a barbaricpast, and that they would be impossible in the US today We wish to presentone single document whose authenticity is beyond doubt. An investigativecommission of the US House of Representatives presented in October 1986 a finalreport concerning the Manhattan Project. According to this document, between1945 and 1975 at least 695 American citizens were exposed to dangerous doses ofradioactivity. Some of them were prisoners who had volunteered, but they alsoincluded residen ts of old-age homes, inmates of insane asylums, handicappedpeople in nursing homes, and even normal patients in public hospitals; most ofthem were subjected to these experiments without their permission. Thus thebarbaric past` is not really a thing of the past. It is remarkablethat most of these experiments were carried out in university institutes andfederal hospitals, all of which are named in the report. Nonetheless, thesefacts remained secret until 1984, and even then a Congressional committee thatwas equipped with all the necessary authorization needed two years in order tobring these facts to life. We are often asked how the work on the AIDS viruscould have been kept secret. Now, experiments performed on a few dozen prisonersin a laboratory that is subject to military security can be far more easily keptsecret than could be the Manhattan Project.