[Letter to Colleagues from Peter Duesberg]

Peter Duesberg - December 24, 1991

page - 2 -

Apparently, these reviewers did not have sufficient time and resources
to analyze my paper. Says reviewer #3, "...I do not have immediate access to
his source and do not have time to pursue the issue." Likewise, reviewer #2
did not take enough time to consider that his own point "that the occurrence
of lymphoma is a well recognized complication in transplant recipients who
receive immunosuppressive drugs" supports rather than contradicts my
point that drugs cause AIDS-defining diseases. He argues with casual remarks
such as "Duesberg might be interested in the following figures, courtesy
CDC..." but does not disclose a literature source for his selected figures. And
reviewer #1 says, "...in hemophilia patients...HIV infection is both necessary
and sufficient for AIDS." Apparently this reviewer did not take the time to
check the papers on AIDS-defining diseases in hemophiliacs without HIV,
documented in my previous paper "AIDS epidemiology: Inconsistencies with
human immunodeficiency virus and with infectious disease" (PNAS 88,
1575-1579, 1991).
In this paper I have documented that, contrary to this reviewers
opinion, the median lifespan of hemophiliacs in the U.S. has about doubled
in the last 10-20 years even though about 75% are now HIV-positive for over
10 years, that hemophiliacs with and without HIV have AIDS-defining
diseases and that their risk of developing these diseases correlates directly
with the number of previous transfusions received. Thus this reviewer's
view that HIV is necessary and sufficient for AIDS-defining diseases in
hemophilicacs is an undocumented opinion. His claim that in the U.S. 59
wives of hemophiliacs have died from HIV since 1985 is a case in point.
Considering that there are 15,000 HIV-positive hemophiliacs in the
U.S. since 1985 (see my PNAS paper cited above), and assuming that a third
are married, then there are about 5,000 such women in the U.S. According to
reviewer # 1, about 10 of these (59 since 1985) would have died annually from
HIV each year since 1985. But at least 1.5%, or 75, of these would die anyway,
considering the human lifespan of about 80 years and that they are all over 20.
To determine whether 10 of these 75 are victims of HIV, the mortality of
wives of HIV-positive hemophiliacs would have to be compared to that of an
age-matched control group. But such a study does not exist.
Instead of arguing with verifiable data, all three of Bogorads revriewers
insist that I don't understand the clinical picture of AIDS on the basis of