[Letter to Colleagues from Peter Duesberg]

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General Comments:
This paper is filled with selective use of data. Dr. Duesberg ignores evidence which links AIDS to
an infectious agent(s), such as the transmission of the disease by blood transfusions, sexual
contacts, needle-sticks, and in childbirth, as well as experiments done in chimpanzees with
retroviruses similar to HIV. Is it merely a coincidence that blood transfusion-related AIDS has all
but disappeared since screening of blood units for HIV antibodies has been instituted? If drug use
y causes AIDS, why was it not seen before 1980? Although drug use may have increased in the last
two decades, there was substantial drug abuse prior to 1980. Even if AIDS couldn't have been
diagnosed as such in the past, diseases such as Kaposi's Sarcoma could be; yet, no link between
this tumor and drug use was ever seen.
Many of the arguments presented in this paper have already been published by Dr. Duesberg in a
previous PNAS paper. This paper is another biased, flawed set of assertions on a subject for
which the author lacks the information necessary to prepare a balanced view.
Specific Comments:
Page 5, last paragraph: What is the point? Of course pneumonia, endocarditis, and TB occur
among drug users, independent of whether they have HIV antibody. Endocarditis results from the
introduction of bacteria or fungi by dirty needles, while pneumonia and TB occur secondary to
poor health or hygiene. None of these diseases are part of the AIDS definition. We all know that
drug users can get infectious diseases.
Page 5-6: Author makes no mention whether IV drug abusers without HIV die from
"opportunistic infections," such as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia or cryptococcal meningitis, for
example. It's long been known that drug abusers die from traditional bacterial pathogens like
Strep. pneumoniae pneumonia, Staph aureus endocarditis or tuberculosis, whether they have HIV
or not.
Page 7: The correlative "evidence" concerning development of Kaposi's sarcoma in various
groups suggests at most that nitrite use may predispose HIV+ patients to develop Kaposi's through
some unknown mechanism. In no way is it proof of causation. How many people with Kaposi's
have used nitrites but are HIV negative?
Page 8: The author makes no mention of the definitive double-blinded, placebo-controlled study
which overwhelmingly demonstrated the efficacy of AZT in preventing early deaths in AIDS
patients. Might the use of AZT in those patients prolong their lives so that lymphoma, which
might be a logical progression of chronic HIV infection, could develop after 3 or 4 years of AZT
use?
Page 9, 1st paragraph: Bacterial pneumonia, septicemia, and TB are not parasitic diseases! By this
definition, all infectious diseases could be called parasitic..Page 9, end:' Text is missing after page 9 and before page 10.
Page 11, line three, contradicts page 12, line 4, concerning cancers and immunosuppression.