[Letter to Colleagues from Peter Duesberg]

cancer (lymphoma) particularly likely to occur in previously unhealthy
people? Or is the author suggesting that these were already present at
entry into the study and for that reason were put in the placebo cohort?
p. 9 Last paragraph: Whether or not AZT increases the incidence of
lymphoma. the comparison here Is meaningless. The author compares the
incidence of lymphoma in AZT treated AIDS patients with that In untreated
HIV-positive (but not with AIDS) individuals. The estimated latter
incidence is based on questionable extrapolation. However, if. as most
believe, those lymphoma are the consequence of immunodeficiency, there is
no reason to expect otherwise healthy HIV-positive individuals to develop
lymphoma much more frequently that the general population. The only
valid comparison would be between AZT-treated AIDS patients and AIDS
patients not receiving AZT.
p.10 Cancers generally may not reflect a defective immune system but. as
pointed out. lymphomas not uncommonly do.
The issue is not whether AZT is toxic nor whether it is wise to treat AIDS or
HIV infected subjects with AZT but it is the implication that AZT causes
AIDS.
Under the heading "drug use sufficient.:." It is clear that pneumonia.
endocarditis and tuberculosis are not new diseases. One would hardly
expect that all the deaths from these causes would suddenly occur only in
AIDS. But how many of the pneumonias were due to pneumocystis which
rarely occurs in other groups, and how many of these infection deaths were "
in individuals who were clearly immunodeficient?
p. 11 the conclusion that "the long term use of recreational and anti-HIV
drugs appears necessary in HIV positives..... to induce AIDS indicator and
other diseases" is just plain wrong as indicated by the occurrence of AIDS in
transfusion recipents and hemophiliacs (who certainly had acquired
immunodeficiency whether or not Dr. Duesberg is willing to call it AIDS).
Even if the authors claim that the occurrence of AIDS in the later groups are
old happenings under a new name (which any physician responsible for
such patients will find totally without merit) they clearly do not involve
either recreational or anti HIV drugs.
p. 11 Last paragraph. Few people would dispute that there are dangers to
health associated with drug use but malnutrition and septicemia are not
AIDS nor are " bronchitis, edema. and other diseases".

p. 16 The weakest point in Dr. Duesberg's position (more generally as
opposed to the drug-AIDS issue) is in his paragraph here labeled 7): "Some