Recently, I met Dr. Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati for lunch in Berkeley to discuss
his new attack on the "HIV causes AIDS" theory. I thought it kind of ironic
that we met at CAL because Berkeley is home to Peter Duesberg, the world's
most famous dissident of the War on AIDS, Unlike Professor Duesberg, however,
Dr. Al-Bayati's near-blasphemous conclusions haven't come from work in molecular
cell biology, but from an exhaustive two-year study researching the causes
of AIDS through toxicology, a science he feels is excluded from our healthcare
industry.
Promoting his self-published medical book "Get All the Facts: HIV Does
Not Cause AIDS", the doctor has been on the promotion circuit, including
a stint on Sacramento's Health in America show, several medical radio broadcasts,
articles about him in Zenger's Medical Health, Well Being Journal, and the
International Council for Health Freedom Newsletter. He's also given a speech
to parents at Tremont School in Dixon, where his child is a fifth grade
student. "This is the biggest story of the new millennium," he has told
audiences, "This book is medical fact of evidence not based on theory or
hypothesis." His one-man crusade has led to him writing President Bill Clinton,
Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala and numerous others
in power about his discoveries, though to little avail. The letter to Shalala
resulted in a three page response from Helen D. Gayle, director of the National
Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention within the Center for Disease Control
(CDC), who wrote: "Although the scientific evidence is overwhelming and
compelling that HIV is the cause of AIDS, as with many complex conditions,
the disease process is no (sic) completely understood. This perhaps has
led some to theorize that AIDS is not caused by an infectious agent. At
CDC, we believe that this position in not only misleading, but may have
dangerous consequences."
No mention was made of the thousand or so well-credentialed researchers,
physicians, and scientists who have disputed or at least questioned the
HIV hypothesis. What turned this Iraqi immigrant who taught toxicology and
pathology at UC Davis, with admittedly little interest in AIDS research,
into a David ready to battle the HIV industry Goliath? Well, it has something
to do with steroids. Not the steroids bodybuilders use. These ones are called
corticosteroids, or glucocorticoids. These drugs suppress the immune system,
and they were developed in the '60's and '70's for that very reason. Doctors
gave them to transplant patients so their immune systems wouldn't reject
the transplanted organs. So where does Al-Bayati come in? It all began with
the development of AIDS in a 60-year-old HIV-negative man following treatment
with steroids and immunosuppressive drugs for lung fibrosis. Symptomatically,
the patient had pneumonia and severe fungal infection of the mouth and skin,
often associated with AIDS. Al-Bayati concluded that "the development of
AIDS in this man was by the use of therapeutic immunosuppressive agents".
He contacted the patient's physician and submitted a report asking him
to stop giving the man immunosuppressive drugs. That's when Al-Bayati found
out that this individual had had "AIDS". His immunosuppression had come
from the use of corticosteroids, azathioprine and prednisone, which he described
in the report. This case had alerted him. Until then his understanding had
been that AIDS was caused by the HIV virus. His understanding in the fields
of immunology and biochemistry was helpful in his "very wide" evaluation
of the medical literature on HIV and AIDS. "I was really very surprised
to see the link between them is an assumption. The conclusion that HIV causes
AIDS is based on a misreading of the epidemiology, which really indicates
the AIDS in the risk groups has resulted from the exposure to illicit drugs
and corticosteroid treatments." "Kaposi's sarcoma" (a common cancer associated
with AIDS) "is reversible upon the termination of treatment with immunosuppressive
agents prior to metastasis." "AIDS in hemophiliacs is related to the use
of corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive agents to prevent the development
of antibodies for factors VIII and IX and to treat other chronic diseases
such as joint disease."
"AIDS in Africa is caused by malnutrition, release of endogenous cortisol,
and opportunistic diseases. Atrophy in the lymphoid tissue in people suffering
from malnutrition has been known since 1925. Malnutrition causes severe
atrophy in the thymus and lymphoid organs and impairs the functions of the
T cells. These changes are reversible by feeding. The size of the thymus
in malnourished children increased from 20 percent of normal to 107 percent
of normal, following nine weeks of feeding." Dr. Al-Bayati agrees with numerous
AIDS dissidents, including the aforementioned Duesberg, that homosexual
men, the people who were first diagnosed with the disease in 1981, have
contracted it by using illicit drugs such as alkyl nitrates ("poppers"),
"recreational drugs", and abusing alcohol, compounded by pre-existing opportunistic
viral, bacteriological and land fungal diseases. "Passive" homosexuals often
require rectal steroids by traditional medicine to treat their gastrointestinal
diseases. In addition, using "highly toxic" anti-AIDS drugs such as AZT,
glucocorticoids, and protease inhibitors can actually cause AIDS in asymptomatic
patients and worsen the disease in full-blown cases. "These drugs do not
have any therapeutic value, and their use must be discontinued immediately,"
Dr. Al-Bayati says. Those interested in his theories can contact him at
his company, Toxi-Health International at 150 Bloom Dr., Dixon, CA 95620.
Phone (707) 678-4484.