[Letter to Colleagues from Peter Duesberg]

8
p7 17 "Thus,...
Perhaps, this summary deserves a paragraph. Also it
should take cognizance of not only the acquisition of
AIDS/non-AIDS diseases, but also the equivalent loss of T
lymphocytes in both +/- cases. I would recommend something
like the following:
"Thus, it appears that intravenous drug consumption is
correlated to the acquisition of both AIDS (and non-AIDS)
diseases independently of the presence of HIV antibody. Of
greater significance, is that drug consumption not HIV
antibody is the stronger predictor of acquiring AIDS
diseases and the loss and reactivity of lymphocytes." [This
may not be quite right, but some integrative and summary
statement is needed.]
p7 112 About 60% of the American AIDS patients are male
homosexuals 20 to 45 years of age, who are not users of
intravenous drugs (15).
What this reviewer sees in ref 15 is as follows:
"Of the American AIDS patients who are 20-44 years
of age, 59% [75,829/128,752] are reported as male
homosexuals who are not using intravenous drugs (15,Table
7)."
p7 114 OK
p7 119 From 1988 to 1990 about 20,000 homosexual AIDS
cases were reported annually (15).
This reviewer can see in Table 12 that 31,918, 34,947, and
25,000 total AIDS cases were reported in 1988, 1989, and
1990. If one multiplies by the fraction of male
homosexual/bisexual contacts (Table 7) one does arrive at
less than 20,422. So the number of 20,000 is about right.
However, this reviewer can't find the precise fractions for
the three different years. In any event, there should be
better referencing, viz. "(15, Table 12, adjusted for
fraction of male homosexuals)". It would be desirable to
have a cleaner reference.
The author might consider constructing this argument in*
terms of the ten-year totals, then one could use the numbers
in Table 3 and the referencing would be clean. There one
sees that only 94,126 + 10,557 = 104,683 reported
homosexuals become AIDS cases over a ten year period;:this
is only 1.3% of the estimated 8 million American male

homosexuals (57).