Letter: Casting doubt on HIV/Aids connection

Sir: Whatever James Fenton ('Humility? Never on a Sunday, it seems', 27 June) may like to read into my comments about the Sunday Times's position on Aids, the paper remains committed to reporting the debate on the true causes of the condition. Our position is simple: the orthodoxy that HIV is the cause of Aids does not match the facts. In the last 18 months we have reported on the growing evidence that challenges the HIV/Aids theory.

1: The projections made in the 1980s for the growth of Aids did not come true, particularly in low-risk groups. The growth still appears to be largely limited to homosexual males, intravenous drug takers and people whose immune system is under threat from other diseases.

2: The Concorde trials have revealed that AZT does not help people defined as HIV positive and in fact causes them harm.

3: The World Health Organisation's predictions for the spread of Aids in Africa are clearly false; a growing number of scientists accept that other diseases, particularly TB, are the real cause of many deaths.

4: The validity and accuracy of the HIV test is in doubt.

5: Research in the United States and Europe does link the regular use of amyl nitrate with the destruction of the immune system.

Clearly we could stick our heads in the sand, ignore uncomfortable facts and hold on to the increasingly threatened paradigm that there is only one cause of Aids. Or we can continue to report the facts as they emerge, however unacceptable they are to Mr Fenton. We will, of course, as any good newspaper would, do the latter.

Yours faithfully,

JOHN WITHEROW

Acting Editor, Sunday Times

London, E1