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... excerpt from the article "The Yin and Yang of HIV
Heterosexuals
The largest and best conducted studies in heterosexuals including the European Study Group (107) show that for women, the only sexual practice leading to an increased risk of becoming HIV antibody positive is anal intercourse. The unidirectional transmission of "HIV" observed in OECD countries is supported by Nancy Padian's ten year study of heterosexual couples (1986-1996).(108) There were two parts to this study, one cross-sectional, the other prospective. In the former "The constant per-contact infectivity for male-to-female transmission was estimated to be 0.0009 [1/1111]". The risk factors for the women were: (i) anal intercourse;. (ii) having partners who acquired this infection through drug use (Padian says that this means the women may also be IV drug users); (iii) the presence of STDs. (antibodies to their causative agents may react in an "HIV" antibody test (15,20) Of the HIV negative male partners of 82 positive female cases only 2 became HIV positive but under circumstances considered ambiguous by Padian. In the prospective study, starting in 1990, 175 HIV-discordant couples were followed for approximately 282 couple-years. At entry, one third used condoms consistently and in the six months prior their last follow up visit, 26% of couples consistently failed to use condoms. There were no seroconversions after entry including the 47 couples not using condoms consistently. Based on the 2/86 men who became HIV positive in the early study, the risk to a non-infected male from his HIV positive female partner was reported to be in the order of 1/9000 per contact. From this statistic one can calculate that on average, a male would need to have 6000 sexual contacts with an infected female to achieve a 50% chance of becoming HIV positive. At three contacts per week this would take 56 years, or a life time.
Prostitutes
The notion that HIV is a virus which "does not discriminate" is also markedly inconsistent with the data obtained from studies of female prostitutes. Even if, as it is widely accepted, by some unknown means a sexually transmitted infectious agent found its way into the promiscuous portion of the gay male population in certain large cities in the United States in the late 1970s, given the facts that prostitutes are frequented by bisexual men and, at the very earliest, "safe" sexual practices date from 1985, one would have expected HIV/AIDS to have spread rapidly through prostitutes and thence to the general community. However, the prevalence of "HIV" antibodies amongst prostitutes is almost entirely confined to those who are drug users. Virtually all other prostitutes have not been, and are not becoming, HIV positive.
In September 1985, 56 non-intravenous drug using (IVDU) prostitutes were tested "In the rue Saint-Denis, the most notorious street in Paris for prostitution. More than a thousand prostitutes work in this area€¦These women, aged 18-60, have sexual intercourse 15-25 times daily and do not routinely use protection". None were positive.(109)
In Copenhagen, 101 non-IVDU prostitutes, a quarter of whom "suspected that up to one fifth of their clients were homosexual or bisexual", were tested during August/October 1985. The median numbers of sexual encounters per week was 20. None were positive.(110)
In 1985, 132 prostitutes (and 55 non-prostitutes) who attended a Sydney STD clinic were tested for HIV antibodies. The average numbers of sexual partners (clients and lovers) in the previous month was 24.5. When an estimate was made to separate clients and lovers, the median number of sexual contacts per year rose from 175 to 450. The partners of only 14 (11%) of prostitutes used condoms at all and 49% of their partners used condoms in fewer than 20% of encounters. No women were positive.(111)
The same Australian Clinic repeatedly tested an additional 491 prostitutes who attended between 1986 and 1988. Of 231 out of the 491 prostitutes surveyed, 19% "had bisexual non-paying partners and 21% had partners who injected drugs. Sixty-nine percent always used condoms for vaginal intercourse with paying clients, but they were rarely used with non-paying partners. Condoms were rarely used by those clients and/or partners for the 18% of prostitutes practising anal intercourse". No women were positive.
At the time of this report, a decade into the AIDS era, the authors also commented, "there has been no documented case of a female prostitute in Australia becoming infected with HIV through sexual intercourse" (italics ours). Yet, these investigators from the Sydney Sexual Health Centre concluded "there are still many women working as prostitutes in Sydney who remain seriously at risk of HIV infection".(112) In Spain, of 519 non-IVDU prostitutes tested between May 1989 and December 1990, only 12 (2.3 per cent) had positive test, which was "only slightly higher than that reported 5 years ago in similar surveys". Some prostitutes had as many as 600 partners a month and the development of a positive antibody test was directly related to the practice of anal intercourse. The authors also noted, "a more striking and disappointing finding was the low proportion of prostitutes who used condoms at all times, despite the several mass-media AIDS prevention campaigns that have been carried out in Spain".(113)
Similar data from two Scottish studies,(114) the 1993 "European working group on HIV infection in female prostitutes study",(115) and a 1994 report of 53,903 Filipino prostitutes tested between 1985 to 1992, confirm that non-IVDU prostitutes remain virtually devoid of HIV infection. For example, in the latter study, only 72 (0.01%) women were found to be HIV positive.
In studies where there appear to be a high incidence of HIV amongst prostitutes there are uncertainties that defy explanation. For example, although "HIV has been present in the commercial sex work networks in the Philippines and Indonesia for almost as long as it has been in Thailand and Cambodia", the prevalence of HIV in the former is 0.13% and 0.02% respectively and 18.8% and 40% in the latter.(116) If these are accurate data, the discrepancy defies epidemiological explanation and has indeed baffled the experts although the latter postulate "behavioural factors" such as one country€™s prostitutes and clients being considerably more or less sexually active than another. However, one could also pose another question. What are the "HIV" antibody tests actually measuring? Be that as it may, since 5674 (44%) and 4360 (34%) of the 12785 Cambodian "HIV and AIDS Case Reports" till 31/12/97 are listed as "Unknown" gender and age respectively,(117) data collection, at least by the WHO in Cambodia, must be regarded as problematic.
Contradictions
Why should HIV avoid non-drug using prostitutes? If female prostitutes who do not use drugs do not become HIV infected despite being "seriously at risk of HIV infection", what is the risk of infection to the majority of Australian women who are neither drug users nor prostitutes? According to data from the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, vanishingly little. A 1989 study testing 10, 217 blood samples of newborn babies (unambiguous evidence of heterosexual activity without condoms), found that no babies or mothers were HIV positive.(118) If such women remain non-infected, how do their non-drug using, male heterosexual partners become infected with HIV?
According to Simon Wain-Hobson, a leading HIV expert from the Pasteur Institute, "a virus's job" is to spread. "If you don't spread, you're dead". (Weiss, 1998 #1179) The "overwhelming" evidence from studies both in gay men and heterosexuals is that HIV/AIDS is not bidirectionally sexually transmitted. In the whole history of Medicine there has never been such a phenomenon. Since microbes rely on person to person spread for their survival, it is impossible to claim from epidemiological data that HIV/AIDS is an infectious, sexually transmitted disease. Indeed, Professor Stuart Brody, from the University of Tubingen, has argued that physicians ignore the actual heterosexual data and instead promote the politically correct idea that everyone is at risk. "Ideological knowledge about AIDS is far more likely to filter through society than scientific knowledge".(37)
[...]
107. European Study Group. (1989). Risk factors for male to female transmission of HIV. Brit. Med. J. 298:411-414.
108. Padian NS, Shiboski SC, Glass SO, Vittinghoff E. (1997). Heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in northern California: results from a ten-year study. Am. J. Epidemiol. 146:350-357.
109. Anonymous. (1985). HTLV-III antibody in prostitutes. Lancet ii:1424.
110. Krogsgaard K, Gluud C, Pederson C, et al. (1986). Widespread use of condoms and low prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases in Danish non-drug addict prostitutes. Brit. Med. J. 293:1473-1474.
111. Philpot CR, Harcourt C, Edwards J, Grealis A. (1988). Human immunodeficiency virus and female prostitutes, Sydney 1985. Genitourinary Med. 64:193-7.
112. Philpot CR, Harcourt CL, Edwards JM. (1991). A survey of female prostitutes at risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmissible diseases. Genitourinary Med. 67:384-8.
113. Pineda JA, Aguado I, Rivero A, et al. (1992). HIV-1 infection among non-intravenous drug user female prostitutes in Spain. No evidence of evolution to Pattern II. AIDS 6:1365-1369.
114. McKeagney N, Barnard M, Leyland A, Coote I, Follet E. (1992). Female streetworking prostitution and HIV infection in Glasgow. Brit. Med. J. 305:801-804.
115. Anonymous. (1993). HIV infection in European female sex workers: epidemiological link with use of petroleum-based lubricants. European Working Group on HIV Infection in Female Prostitutes. AIDS 7:401-8.
116. Anonymous. (1998). The HIV/AIDS/STD epidemics in Asia and the Pacific. Australian HIV Surveillance Report 14:1-8.
117. Samrith C. Official HIV and AIDS Case Report. Phnom Penh: World Health Organisation, 1997.
118. McLaws ML, Brown ARD, Cunningham PH, Imrie AA, Wilcken B, Cooper DA. (1989). Prevalence of maternal HIV infection based on anonymous testing of neonates, Sydney 1989. Med. J. Aust. 153:383-386.
Heterosexuals
The largest and best conducted studies in heterosexuals including the European Study Group (107) show that for women, the only sexual practice leading to an increased risk of becoming HIV antibody positive is anal intercourse. The unidirectional transmission of "HIV" observed in OECD countries is supported by Nancy Padian's ten year study of heterosexual couples (1986-1996).(108) There were two parts to this study, one cross-sectional, the other prospective. In the former "The constant per-contact infectivity for male-to-female transmission was estimated to be 0.0009 [1/1111]". The risk factors for the women were: (i) anal intercourse;. (ii) having partners who acquired this infection through drug use (Padian says that this means the women may also be IV drug users); (iii) the presence of STDs. (antibodies to their causative agents may react in an "HIV" antibody test (15,20) Of the HIV negative male partners of 82 positive female cases only 2 became HIV positive but under circumstances considered ambiguous by Padian. In the prospective study, starting in 1990, 175 HIV-discordant couples were followed for approximately 282 couple-years. At entry, one third used condoms consistently and in the six months prior their last follow up visit, 26% of couples consistently failed to use condoms. There were no seroconversions after entry including the 47 couples not using condoms consistently. Based on the 2/86 men who became HIV positive in the early study, the risk to a non-infected male from his HIV positive female partner was reported to be in the order of 1/9000 per contact. From this statistic one can calculate that on average, a male would need to have 6000 sexual contacts with an infected female to achieve a 50% chance of becoming HIV positive. At three contacts per week this would take 56 years, or a life time.
Prostitutes
The notion that HIV is a virus which "does not discriminate" is also markedly inconsistent with the data obtained from studies of female prostitutes. Even if, as it is widely accepted, by some unknown means a sexually transmitted infectious agent found its way into the promiscuous portion of the gay male population in certain large cities in the United States in the late 1970s, given the facts that prostitutes are frequented by bisexual men and, at the very earliest, "safe" sexual practices date from 1985, one would have expected HIV/AIDS to have spread rapidly through prostitutes and thence to the general community. However, the prevalence of "HIV" antibodies amongst prostitutes is almost entirely confined to those who are drug users. Virtually all other prostitutes have not been, and are not becoming, HIV positive.
In September 1985, 56 non-intravenous drug using (IVDU) prostitutes were tested "In the rue Saint-Denis, the most notorious street in Paris for prostitution. More than a thousand prostitutes work in this area€¦These women, aged 18-60, have sexual intercourse 15-25 times daily and do not routinely use protection". None were positive.(109)
In Copenhagen, 101 non-IVDU prostitutes, a quarter of whom "suspected that up to one fifth of their clients were homosexual or bisexual", were tested during August/October 1985. The median numbers of sexual encounters per week was 20. None were positive.(110)
In 1985, 132 prostitutes (and 55 non-prostitutes) who attended a Sydney STD clinic were tested for HIV antibodies. The average numbers of sexual partners (clients and lovers) in the previous month was 24.5. When an estimate was made to separate clients and lovers, the median number of sexual contacts per year rose from 175 to 450. The partners of only 14 (11%) of prostitutes used condoms at all and 49% of their partners used condoms in fewer than 20% of encounters. No women were positive.(111)
The same Australian Clinic repeatedly tested an additional 491 prostitutes who attended between 1986 and 1988. Of 231 out of the 491 prostitutes surveyed, 19% "had bisexual non-paying partners and 21% had partners who injected drugs. Sixty-nine percent always used condoms for vaginal intercourse with paying clients, but they were rarely used with non-paying partners. Condoms were rarely used by those clients and/or partners for the 18% of prostitutes practising anal intercourse". No women were positive.
At the time of this report, a decade into the AIDS era, the authors also commented, "there has been no documented case of a female prostitute in Australia becoming infected with HIV through sexual intercourse" (italics ours). Yet, these investigators from the Sydney Sexual Health Centre concluded "there are still many women working as prostitutes in Sydney who remain seriously at risk of HIV infection".(112) In Spain, of 519 non-IVDU prostitutes tested between May 1989 and December 1990, only 12 (2.3 per cent) had positive test, which was "only slightly higher than that reported 5 years ago in similar surveys". Some prostitutes had as many as 600 partners a month and the development of a positive antibody test was directly related to the practice of anal intercourse. The authors also noted, "a more striking and disappointing finding was the low proportion of prostitutes who used condoms at all times, despite the several mass-media AIDS prevention campaigns that have been carried out in Spain".(113)
Similar data from two Scottish studies,(114) the 1993 "European working group on HIV infection in female prostitutes study",(115) and a 1994 report of 53,903 Filipino prostitutes tested between 1985 to 1992, confirm that non-IVDU prostitutes remain virtually devoid of HIV infection. For example, in the latter study, only 72 (0.01%) women were found to be HIV positive.
In studies where there appear to be a high incidence of HIV amongst prostitutes there are uncertainties that defy explanation. For example, although "HIV has been present in the commercial sex work networks in the Philippines and Indonesia for almost as long as it has been in Thailand and Cambodia", the prevalence of HIV in the former is 0.13% and 0.02% respectively and 18.8% and 40% in the latter.(116) If these are accurate data, the discrepancy defies epidemiological explanation and has indeed baffled the experts although the latter postulate "behavioural factors" such as one country€™s prostitutes and clients being considerably more or less sexually active than another. However, one could also pose another question. What are the "HIV" antibody tests actually measuring? Be that as it may, since 5674 (44%) and 4360 (34%) of the 12785 Cambodian "HIV and AIDS Case Reports" till 31/12/97 are listed as "Unknown" gender and age respectively,(117) data collection, at least by the WHO in Cambodia, must be regarded as problematic.
Contradictions
Why should HIV avoid non-drug using prostitutes? If female prostitutes who do not use drugs do not become HIV infected despite being "seriously at risk of HIV infection", what is the risk of infection to the majority of Australian women who are neither drug users nor prostitutes? According to data from the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, vanishingly little. A 1989 study testing 10, 217 blood samples of newborn babies (unambiguous evidence of heterosexual activity without condoms), found that no babies or mothers were HIV positive.(118) If such women remain non-infected, how do their non-drug using, male heterosexual partners become infected with HIV?
According to Simon Wain-Hobson, a leading HIV expert from the Pasteur Institute, "a virus's job" is to spread. "If you don't spread, you're dead". (Weiss, 1998 #1179) The "overwhelming" evidence from studies both in gay men and heterosexuals is that HIV/AIDS is not bidirectionally sexually transmitted. In the whole history of Medicine there has never been such a phenomenon. Since microbes rely on person to person spread for their survival, it is impossible to claim from epidemiological data that HIV/AIDS is an infectious, sexually transmitted disease. Indeed, Professor Stuart Brody, from the University of Tubingen, has argued that physicians ignore the actual heterosexual data and instead promote the politically correct idea that everyone is at risk. "Ideological knowledge about AIDS is far more likely to filter through society than scientific knowledge".(37)
[...]
107. European Study Group. (1989). Risk factors for male to female transmission of HIV. Brit. Med. J. 298:411-414.
108. Padian NS, Shiboski SC, Glass SO, Vittinghoff E. (1997). Heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in northern California: results from a ten-year study. Am. J. Epidemiol. 146:350-357.
109. Anonymous. (1985). HTLV-III antibody in prostitutes. Lancet ii:1424.
110. Krogsgaard K, Gluud C, Pederson C, et al. (1986). Widespread use of condoms and low prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases in Danish non-drug addict prostitutes. Brit. Med. J. 293:1473-1474.
111. Philpot CR, Harcourt C, Edwards J, Grealis A. (1988). Human immunodeficiency virus and female prostitutes, Sydney 1985. Genitourinary Med. 64:193-7.
112. Philpot CR, Harcourt CL, Edwards JM. (1991). A survey of female prostitutes at risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmissible diseases. Genitourinary Med. 67:384-8.
113. Pineda JA, Aguado I, Rivero A, et al. (1992). HIV-1 infection among non-intravenous drug user female prostitutes in Spain. No evidence of evolution to Pattern II. AIDS 6:1365-1369.
114. McKeagney N, Barnard M, Leyland A, Coote I, Follet E. (1992). Female streetworking prostitution and HIV infection in Glasgow. Brit. Med. J. 305:801-804.
115. Anonymous. (1993). HIV infection in European female sex workers: epidemiological link with use of petroleum-based lubricants. European Working Group on HIV Infection in Female Prostitutes. AIDS 7:401-8.
116. Anonymous. (1998). The HIV/AIDS/STD epidemics in Asia and the Pacific. Australian HIV Surveillance Report 14:1-8.
117. Samrith C. Official HIV and AIDS Case Report. Phnom Penh: World Health Organisation, 1997.
118. McLaws ML, Brown ARD, Cunningham PH, Imrie AA, Wilcken B, Cooper DA. (1989). Prevalence of maternal HIV infection based on anonymous testing of neonates, Sydney 1989. Med. J. Aust. 153:383-386.
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