The debate centers around whether HIV alone causes AIDS or whether an additional cofactor is needed to cause HIV to turn into AIDS. After nearly 20 years of isolating HIV as the virus that causes AIDS, there are still questions as to why there is such a long incubation from the initial HIV infection and the onset of AIDS symptoms. Leading AIDS research supports the theory that factors in addition to HIV infection lead to AIDS.
While most of the world has adopted David Ho’s belief that HIV alone causes AIDS, new theories on the cause of AIDS have taken hold. Peter Duesberg, PhD holds the belief that AIDS, on other hand, is not related to HIV whatsoever. According to Dr. Root-Bernstein, “The debate has been cast in black-and-white terms. HIV either is or isn’t the cause, with nothing in between.” Today, a more moderate approach is common. Many doctors, scientists, and patients recognize that HIV plays a role in causing AIDS and believe that there is value in the creation of new antiretroviral therapy. However, they also recognize that HIV does not cause all of the destruction of CD4 that causes AIDS. So far, AIDS research has been unable to isolate a cofactor that acts in conjunction with HIV to cause AIDS.
After the discovery of HIV in 1983 by Robert Gallo, MD and the licensing of AZT by the Food and Drug Administration, the idea that HIV alone causes AIDS became dominant and research trying to locate cofactors that interact with HIV to cause AIDS essentially stopped. Gallo stated at the time “The only cofactor is time. Everyone with HIV will eventually get AIDS and die,” while Duesberg’s views were dismissed as “irresponsible” and “confusing the public.” With time, however, problems crept up with the HIV only theory. Cases began to be documented of people being infected with the HIV virus for years without developing AIDS. As a result, researchers such as Professor Root-Bernstein realized that it might be possible to understand the immune system through AIDS research. Research resulting from research such as Professor Root-Bernstein’s has helped reopen the search for a HIV cofactor. As a result of Gallo’s research during the mid-1980s, HHV-6 was recognized as a potential HIV cofactor. In Gallo’s findings, HHV-6 was found to have a more destructive effect on the immune system, specifically CD4 cells, than HIV alone. As research and understanding of HIV/AIDS progressed, a moderate theory evolved. People such as Robert Gallo, MD now realize that there are cofactors working in conjunction with HIV to cause AIDS. Meanwhile, people subscribing to the view that HIV has no role in causing AIDS now realize that HIV does play a leading role in causing AIDS.
Key terms include: cofactor, protease inhibitors, and CD4 cells. A cofactor is an additional virus, such a HHV-6, or environmental factors, such as depth of exposure to the HIV virus, that work with HIV to cause AIDS. Protease inhibitors work by blocking receptors on the actual HIV virus, thus aiming to reduce the destruction of CD4 cells. The success of protease inhibitors in the mid-1990s suggested that HIV was the probable cause of AIDS and further hindered or discouraged research on the search for a cofactor in the cause of AIDS. Finally, CD4 cells are cells within the immune system that rid the body of viruses. When CD4 cells are destroyed en masse, such as in AIDS, a host of opportunistic diseases not normally found in healthy populations appear. In essence, people do not die from AIDS itself, but from a whole range of diseases that appear due to the suppression of the immune system.
