I am very pleased to welcome all the visitors of the new Rethinking AIDS (RA) website!

As many of you are probably aware, RA has been re-activated and re-organized since late 2005. Thanks to the expertise and dedication of the thirteen highly motivated Members of RA Board of Directors, new bylaws have been drafted and recently approved, and a President, a Treasurer (David Crowe) and a Webmaster (Bryan Owen) have been appointed. The goals and purpose of RA have been defined, and its involvement has been stressed in a world-wide effort to 1) eradicate the dogma according to which an elusive retrovirus is the cause of the syndrome, and 2) support research and public awareness on possible alternative causes of the disease. These topics were the central focus of an important meeting of the RA Board of Directors that took place in New York City, on June 10-11, 2006.

Unquestionably, AIDS is a dramatic aspect of human pathology, first recognized in 1981, in the Los Angeles area, among a small group of gay men. The definition of the syndrome has been changed several times, and considerable differences exist between what is called AIDS in North America and Europe, and what is called AIDS in Africa. Despite these differences, research aimed at curing and hopefully preventing the syndrome has been, for the past 23 years, exclusively and dramatically restricted to one single, totally unproven hypothesis; i.e., the hypothetical role of a retrovirus identified as 'HIV' in 1984. Stubborn dogmatic adherence, by the entire academic community, to this unreasonable hypothesis can only be explained by a desperate effort to salvage the reputation of many cancer research laboratories that had been highly biased, between 1960 and 1980, in large programs aimed at demonstrating that retroviruses are involved in the causation of human cancer.

Hypothesizing, without any trace of scientific evidence, that a retrovirus was the cause of AIDS permitted the perpetuation of retroviral research highly profitable for the pharmaceutical business, and avoided embarrassing closures of many retrovirus oriented laboratories.

The retrovirus hypothesis was presented 23 years ago, and the entire, world-wide research effort on AIDS has been restricted to that unique hypothesis ever since. Most dramatically, the clear evidence, in 2007, is that this hypothesis totally failed to help. Based on that single and scientifically unproven hypothesis, AIDS research failed to deliver any curative AIDS therapy, it never permitted scientists to prepare a reliable vaccine, and it never led to verifiable epidemiologic predictions. As early as 1987, Peter Duesberg had the courage and scientific authority to ring the alarm bell. In doing so, he has been the scientific founder of the Rethinking AIDS movement of 'Dissidents' ('The Group'), that was crystallized in 1991 by the historic statement that has been supported and signed by more than 2,300 concerned scientists (including two Nobel laureates) and innumerable attentive rethinkers from other fields. Cancer research had been put on the wrong track by placing emphasis on an enzyme 'marker' of cancer cells in 1970; AIDS research has been put on the wrong track by hypothesizing retroviral causation in 1984.

In order to accelerate general awareness of this disastrous situation, Rethinking AIDS (RA) has been, recently, setting up several mechanisms. It has created the website you are currently visiting, it has appointed a Public Relations task force for the presentation of professionally formatted messages to the media, it is organizing one annual Board of Directors general meeting, and it is currently reactivating contact with our 2,300 signatories of the 1991 statement. This shall soon permit us to start a fundraising program. The money raised will be used for setting up dissident conferences, publishing dissident books and lectures, creating dissident films and videos, advising the victims of the HIV fear campaign paradigm, educating the public on matters related to alternative, non toxic protocols for consolidating immune responses, and educating the public on the unacceptable toxicity of so-called antiretroviral drugs as well as on the total lack of specificity of so-called seropositivity tests. The ambition of RA is to lead this struggle on a world-wide basis. RA’s ultimate goal is to rapidly contribute to the final implosion of the HIV=AIDS=Death paradigm. Nothing less!

The RA Board of Directors is the main operational body supporting this ambitious and urgent program (see the Board section on this website for all names and short CVs). The strength of the Board is in the diverse background of its members. Some are academic scientists; some are highly dedicated rethinkers, for many years, in the dissident movement. You shall find many documents written by them at this website. Obviously, they don’t all share identical views on some detailed points of the HIV debate. They are, however, forming a strongly united group. United because they all share the scientifically based opinion according to which: a) AIDS is not an infectious disease; b) AIDS is not caused by a retrovirus; c) serological and viral load tests are not reliable for the diagnosis of AIDS; d) HAART drugs do more harm than good; e) adequate public hygiene and sanitation, well balanced nutrition, and curtailing the use of recreational drugs can prevent and control AIDS much better than all the toxic ARV therapeutic regimens; and f) several alternative and non-viral factors can explain the occurrence of most acquired immuno deficiencies in humans. This is a lot to agree about!

You can help us in many ways :

• by signing the 1991 declaration if you have not yet done so (which will make you a RA member),
• by communicating ideas and suggestions,
• by advising rethinking friends to join us,
• by linking to our website from yours,
• by educating political representatives,
• by lecturing on this subject to as many groups of people as possible, and
• by educating victims of all the HIV fear campaigns!

Thank you for being with us!

Etienne de Harven, MD
President of RA (2005-2008)