-Caveat Lector-
Bob Mitchell noted that treponema pallidum (the spirochete which causes
syphilis) could slip through the filters used in the manufacture of
medication for hemophiliacs, and thus could not be ruled out as a possible
cause of AIDS.
Tranfusion-AIDS also caught Jon Rappoport's attention. He addresses a
number of relevant facts to the topic in <AIDS INC.> Let's take a closer
look.
"HIV advocates have also invoked what is called transfusion-AIDS. The
thinking goes this way. Healthy people with no background of "high risk"
activity, when transfused with blood containing HIV, have developed
full-blown AIDS. Therefore, the obvious cause was HIV, and this proves HIV
causes AIDS.
On the surface, it seems like sound reasoning. However, looking over
available statistics on people who get transfusions, a different picture
emerges.
Calculating from figures supplied by the American Association of Blood
Banks, since 1978 [Rappoport wrote this in 1988.--Ed.] about 29 million
Americans have received blood transfusions. In most of these transfusions,
more than one donor supplied the various pints injected, so there was
ample opportunity to receive HIV in the bloodstream. The average size of a
transfusion is 3.5 pints.
As of February 1988, the CDC reports a total of 1466 transfusion AIDS in
the US (since AIDS was first reported). This means that about .00005 of
those who have received transfusions in the last ten years have been
diagnosed with AIDS. That's 5/hundred thousands of one percent.
On that basis, could you possibly infer that HIV is the cause of something
called AIDS? Obviously not. One could argue that these statistics don't
absolutely <rule out> HIV as a sometime cause of human disease, but this
is not the question. Many researchers who attribute AIDS to HIV state, <as
proof>, blood-transfusion AIDS. The burden of proof is on them. The
scenario doesn't hold up in this area.
In addition, several transfusion-AIDS enthusiasts say that, since
mass-screening of hospital blood-reserves for HIV began, transfusion-AIDS
has virtually been eliminated; therefore the culprit <is> HIV. CDC
statistics paint an opposite picture. In 1987 and 1988, 1144 out of the
total of 1466 transfusion-AIDS cases have been reported. In other words,
since HIV has been filtered out of the national blood supply, reported
transfusion-AIDS has risen considerably.
The National Hemophilia Foundation reports there are about 20,000
hemophiliacs of different types in the United States. Slippery estimates
of what percentage have simply tested positive for HIV vary between 50%
and 80%. As of January 11, 1987, the CDC reports 534 total cases of AIDS
among hemophiliacs. This means 4 to 5% of those <estimated> to be
HIV-positive, between 1978 and 1987, have gone to be diagnosed as having
full-blown AIDS.
Again, this is no basis for claiming HIV causes AIDS. In addition,
hemopheliacs can develop other immune problems from the many transfusions
they receive -- problems one could wrongly diagnose as AIDS.
In a <Lancet> letter about hemophiliacs (February 8, 1986), K. L. Schimpf
comments, 'Like Hay et al, we think that progressive liver disease is an
understated problem. Hay et al found by biopsy, progressive liver disease
in 38% of patients with hemophilia (chronic active hepatitis 26%,
chirrosis 12%). These figures are close to ours.' Judging the varied
character and seriousness of problems in hemophiliacs is not simply a
matter of slapping on an AIDS diagnosis.
Hemophiliacs use very large amounts of (clotting) Factor VIII on a
continuing basis. The concentrates from plasma can expose a hemophiliac to
the blood of 100,000 to 300,000 donors per year. <Many> microbial toxins
and chemicals can thus be passed on.
As authors Hilgartner and Aledort mention in their paper, "AIDS in
Hemophilia" (<Annals, New York Academy of Science>, Nov. 1984), 'Treatment
with concentrates (Factor VIII) is associated with a high incidence of
cytomegalovirus (CMV), hepatitis B, and non-A-non-B hepatitis.' Immune
disorders found in hemophiliacs include hemolytic anemia and ITP, an
autoimmune blood platelet problem. These non-viral conditions can result
in the outbreak of opportunistic infections, and in this pattern they are
virtually indistinguishable from AIDS.
In the discussion following the Hilgartner and Aledort paper, which was
initially presented at an AIDS symposium, a questioner said, 'The
hemophiliac population in Germany and Central Europe is about one-third of
the same population in the United States. These patients are treated with
similar or rather slightly higher doses of concentrates. They are
comparable . . . and there was not a single case of AIDS reported.'
Hilgartner replied, 'That, I think, is one of the most important facts
that we have heard. In a population treated with even larger amounts of
concentrate than we have used in the United States for a period of three
to five years, there is yet no indication of AIDS. If there had been a
contaminated lot or if there had been a virus or transmissible agent, one
would certainly have thought that at least one case would have appeared at
the present time in those German hemophiliacs.'
One can certainly speculate on this strange fact, but regardless, invoking
hemophilia to prove HIV causes AIDS just isn't going to work."
-- <AIDS INC.> by Jon Rappoport, Human Energy Press, San
Bruno, 1988, ISBN: 0-941523-03-9, pp 84-86
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