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Thought about AIDS was Wrong? What if Everything You Thought about AIDS was Wrong? by Christine Maggiore, fourth edition revised; The American Foundation for AIDS Alternatives; 128 pages; $10.95. 
Christine Maggiore is an "AIDS dissident"; one of a small but vocal group
of activists who question the established wisdom surrounding HIV and AIDS.
When Maggiore tested positive in 1992, she was sent to a specialist who told
her to take AZT and prepare for an early death.
Instead, Maggiore "began a search for a new AIDS specialist." Since then, Maggiore tells us, "I have gone from frightened victim of AIDS activist to HIV dissenter to spokesperson for new views about HIV and AIDS. Although my HIV status has been decidedly positive for the past five years, I enjoy abundant good health and live without pharmaceutical treatments or fear of AIDS." She is also married and a mom. Not satisfied with existing AIDS organizations, Maggiore started Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives in 1995, in order to "share vital facts about HIV and AIDS that are unavailable from mainstream venues. A year later," she continues, "while trying to write a simple threefold brochure, the first edition of this book emerged. Now in its fourth printing, there are editions in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian - and even a bootleg version in French." Maggiore's book, What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?, attempts to prove the AIDS experts wrong. Realizing that as a laywoman she will be dismissed as a crackpot or a crank, Maggiore backs her arguments with 248 carefully-annotated "references", mostly the work of Dr. Peter Duesberg, David Pasquarelli and other "AIDS dissidents". She also publishes testimony from other "People With AIDS" who share her unorthodox views. According to Maggiore, "AIDS is not new and is not a disease. AIDS is a new name given by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to a collection of 29 familiar illnesses and conditions including yeast infection, herpes, diarrhea, some pneumonias, certain cancers, salmonella, and tuberculosis. These illnesses are called AIDS only when they occur in a person who also has protective disease fighting proteins or antibodies that are thought to be associated with HIV." Furthermore, "there is no proof that HIV causes AIDS. In fact, all the epidemiological and microbiological evidence taken together conclusively demonstrates that HIV cannot cause AIDS or any other illness." "HIV is a retrovirus" and "retroviruses have no cell-killing mechanisms", notes Maggiore. "In fact, there is still no evidence in the scientific literature demonstrating that HIV is able to destroy T cells, directly or indirectly," she writes. As for the so-called "AIDS test":
Contrary to popular belief, AIDS is not out biggest health threat. In fact, "after nearly two decades, AIDS cases in this country have remained 94% confined to the originally identified risk groups [gay and bisexual men and IV drug users]." In the case of "men who have sex with men", Maggiore argues "there are specific health-compromising factors associated with, but that are not unique to, men who have sex with men that are known to cause acquired immune deficiency", among them being the use of nitrites (poppers) and other recreational drugs and "combinations of parasitic infections that include amebiasis and giardiasis along with rectal infections, syphilis, and gonorrhea." Making things worse are "campaigns that encourage HIV testing, the consuming of toxic AIDS drugs, and living in fear of AIDS . . . Such constant emphasis on AIDS gives rise to the notion of the inevitability of AIDS, a belief which can evoke chronic terror, despair and hopelessness - psychological risk factors known to impair immunity and compromise health." Maggiore challenges the belief that recently-developed drug treatments have led to a decline in deaths due to AIDS complications. In fact, "a careful look behind the headlines reveals that there is no medical evidence to support these popular claims about the protease inhibitor "combo cocktails" which in fact lead to a slew of side effects.
Maggiore's book does more than counter well-established scientific facts. It also flies in the face of common sense. Even the least scientific layperson could tell you, from personal experience if nothing else, that an HIV positive diagnosis and a decline in T-cells will eventually lead to one of a number of opportunistic diseases that are usually associated with AIDS. Of course there are exceptions but then there are exceptions to everything (except death and taxes). And contrary to Maggiore and her "references", new drug treatments are responsible for declines in AIDS-related deaths, though not as much as we hoped. There is still no cure or vaccine for AIDS, and prevention is still the best way to avoid AIDS. Meanwhile, Maggiore and other AIDS dissidents are risking their own lives and those of other PWAs. This is a risk that we cannot afford to take.
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Christine Maggiore
Jesse Monteagudo is a Cuban-born freelance writer who has lived in South Florida since 1964. His book reviews, news stories, essays and fictions have appeared in over thirty gay or mainstream publications and over two dozen anthologies. When not writing (or working at his day job), Monteagudo spends his time with his life partner of over 16 years or doing volunteer work for one of several South Florida organizations. He was awarded a Stonewall Award in 1994 and a Stars of the Rainbow Award in 1997 for his contributions to South Florida LGBT organizations, media and journalism. Monteagudo is also working on a book. He can be reached at jessemonteagudo@aol.com