To Fund or Not to Fund, that is the Question: Proposed Experiments on the Drug-AIDS Hypothesis

14

DUESBERG FUNDING

funding" Duesberg's proposal.
References
[CDC 19831 Reports on AIDS, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report, 9 September 1983, 457-8, 464; compiled in a collection
of such reports, 1981-1986, p. 44
[F&F 1990] E. FEE and D. FOX, AIDS - The Making of a Chronic
Disease, U of C Press, 1990
[NIDA 1988] Health Hazards of Nitrite Inhalants, edited by Harry
Haverkos and John Dougherty, HHS Public Health Services,
NIDA, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville MD 20857
Added August 1994
On 23-24 May 1994, the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA)
sponsored a meeting to discuss "the role of nitrite inhalents in AIDS,
particularly in its most visible expression, Kaposi's sarcoma". This
meeting was reported in the article "NIH reconsiders nitrites' link to
AIDS" (Biotechnology, 12 August 1994, p. 762). I have given an account
of this article elsewhere at greater length, but it is relevant to report
here an about-face by Gallo. The Biotechnology article stated:
Finally, Robert Gallo of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH, Bethesda, MD) surprised some attendees and panelists by
arguing that HIV is not the primary cause of KS [Kaposi's
Sarcoma], although it may aggravate the condition once KS is
caused by "something else." As to what that something else
might be, Gallo favored a microbe that has yet to be discovered,
though he allowed that carcinogenic nitrites could well be a
primary cause. In the true spirit of scientific inquiry, quite
different from the rancor of prior discussions of alternative causes
of AIDS, Gallo called for funding of Duesberg's nitrite
experiments."