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SOUTHERN VOICE NOVEMBER17/1994
AIDS cults: believer beware
The deaths of Swiss cult members last
month has created another wave of media in
terest in cults. The attention has been on fringe
religious groups, but cults can take many forms.
If one defines a cult as a group whose mem
bers cling to unproven or patently false beliefs
despite all evidence and logic, often under the
sway of a charismatic leader, then the AIDS
affected community has plenty of them.
Sometimes AIDS cults arise around a par
ticular “alternative” treatment. In southern Cali
fornia, for example, an almost worshipful fol
lowing has championed something called the
Kombucha Tea Mushroom—not a mushroom
at all, but a type of yeast culture that is placed
in a container with water, sugar and black tea
to ferment into a beverage that one drinks.
This fad has happened despite the fact that
there’s no reliable evidence that the stuff works
and good reason to think it may actually be
dangerous, since the brew can easily be con
taminated by harmful microorganisms.
But at least the folks pushing Kombucha
are relatively pleasant, which is more than can
be said for the San Francisco-based advocates
of dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). A chemical
that is applied to small patches of skin, DNCB
supposedly stimulates the cellular component
of the immune system. DNCB advocates point
to positive results reported in a study authored
by Dr. Raphael Strieker, but knowledgeable
observers have questioned both Strieker’s
methodology and the validity of his data. Most
informed and impartial observers I’ve spoken
to rate DNCB as intriguing but not proven.
Unfortunately, a handful of activists, oper
ating either as DNCB Now! or as the ACT
UP/San Francisco Alternative Treatments
Committee, have taken to heaping abuse on
anyone who dares to express doubt about the
stuff. At a conference last summer on tradi
tional Chinese medicine and AIDS, the DNCB
Now! people screamed, “We’re gonna come
back here next year and shut you down!” ap
parently because the Chinese medical practi
tioners wouldn’t immediately throw aside their
herbal formulas in favor of DNCB.
But a reasonable case can be made in favor
of DNCB—at least in favor of more definitive
studies of a treatment that has been used for
years but arguably has not had its day in court,
research-wise. The same cannot be said for
Dr. Peter Duesberg, apostle of the HIV isn’t-
the-cause crowd. No matter how much new
data comes along that blasts his theories to
smithereens, Duesberg’s fans plunge ahead,
seemingly on blind faith alone.
These people are simply impervious to data,
including numerous studies presented at the
10th International Conference on AIDS in
Yokohama. Dr. Ashley Haase, for example,
annihilated one of Duesberg’s key tenets: that
HIV doesn’t infect enough cells to cause dis
ease. Other studies showed that HIV-positive
people who stay healthy for many years have
immune systems that more effectively combat
the virus than those who get sick quickly, and
that the people in whom anti-HIV drugs greatly
reduce the amount of virus do better than those
whose viral levels remain high.
All of this is pretty hard to explain if HIV
has nothing to do with AIDS. Dr. Michael
Saag summed it up this way: “It’s the virus,
stupid.” Yet diehard Duesbergites continue to
write letters-to-the-editor repeating, mantra
like, their claim that no study has shown that
HIV causes AIDS. If you believe that, I know
some “scientific creationists” who’d love to
explain to you why evolution is “just a theory.”
I got a taste of the Duesbergites’ righteous
wrath last year, when I wrote a column docu
menting some of the more blatant falsehoods
the good doctor told in an interview with Spin.
The Duesberg column prompted the only true
hate mail I’ve ever received. One letter writer
called me a “filthy abomination.”
Back then I was surprised that a member
of my own community would use language
one might expect to hear from Pat Robertson
or the mullahs of Iran. But such phrases make
perfect sense coming from a cult member—
and Duesbergism, which tells people not to
worry about safe sex because HIV is harmless,
is a cult every bit as lethal and irrational as the
Branch Davidians or Jim Jones’ People’s
Temple.
People have a right to their beliefs, no
matter how foolish, but some who believe this
stuff are going to die because of it.
Beware of people who claim to have The
Answer. And if they offer you a glass of Kool-
Aid, run like hell.
Addiction doesn’t discriminate,
treatment shouldn’t either.
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