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DEBATING AZT: Mbeki and the AIDS Drug Controversy By Anthony Brink Sourced FOREWORD BY MARTIN WELZ DEDICATIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PREFACE AZT: A MEDICINE FROM HELL AZT: A MEDICINE FROM HEAVEN (Dr D J Martin) AZT AND HEAVENLY REMEDIES [1] Dr Martin scolds the editor of the Citizen from a high horse. [3] AZT and muscles. [10] AZT and bone marrow. [14] What does AZT do for opportunistic infections? [15] Does AZT have �long lasting beneficial effects�? [16] What did the Concorde trial in Europe reveal about AZT? [17] The invention of HAART cocktails. [18] Does AZT prolong life � or shorten it? [19] The grim findings of the Claude Bernard Hospital study in France. [21] Pressure from the manufacturer to sweeten the Concorde findings. [22] Does AZT �improve quality of life�? [26] AZT and the liver. [30] AZT, foetal toxicity and birth defects. [37] Is AZT safe for neonates and children? [39] Are the �side effects� of AZT different from AIDS? [40] How well do untreated HIV-positive people do? [41] How are children exposed to AZT in the womb affected? [43] What did the introduction of AZT do for the AIDS death rate in the US? [44] What cancer risks are posed to babies of mothers treated with AZT? [49] Does AZT reduce HIV transmission from mother to child? [50] AZT and the �AIDS experts� at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital. [51] A precedent for AZT: Diethylstilbestrol. [52] Cancer again. [56] AZT, nerve damage and dementia. [58] AZT and hearts. [59] AZT and eyes. [60] A lesson from Japan. [61] More cancer. [66] AZT and needlesticks. [67] Why AZT can never in principle prevent HIV infection. [70] AZT and rape victims. [72] MRC president Dr William Makgoba and the South African experts. [73] Big-shots overseas. [74] The National Minister of Health on AZT. [75] Charlene Smith cheerleading AZT. [84] The puzzling GlaxoWellcome HIV-AIDS Helpline. [86] Mbeki and D P leader Tony Leon debate AZT for rape victims. [88] The New York Times on �African AIDS�. [89] Mbeki replies to Leon in his Oliver Tambo Memorial Lecture. [90] South African journalists slap down the government�s concerns. [93] Don�t take HAART - the latest research reports. [111] A Pellagra parable. [112] ACT UP founder Larry Kramer speaks about HAART. [113] A withering indictment of AZT by the Perth group. [114] AZT, Jewish weddings and soccer riots. [115] GlaxoWellcome�s feeble response to the Perth group critique. [116] Mbeki chides the ignorant MRC president and Nature correspondent. [118] The lazy pharmacology professor who let the President down. [124] The AZT campaign peters out, and Nevirapine moves in. [125] AZT and its coy advocates. [126] Justice Edwin Cameron and medical miracles. [130] AIDS Law Project director Mark Heywood sounds off. [134] Dr Neil McKerrow�s caring cures. [135] Mbeki answers an appeal by a judge, church leaders and an AIDS expert to provide AZT to pregnant women. [136] Mbeki explains his reservations about AZT. [138] Journalists react to Mbeki�s grasp of the triphosphorylation problem. [139] Mandela on Mbeki. [140] The calomel calamity. [141] Conclusions APPENDIX I APPENDIX II WHY THE �AIDS TEST� IS USELESS AND PATHOLOGISTS AGREE THE AIDS APOSTATES THE POPE OF AIDS HOW COULD THEY ALL BE WRONG? DOCTORS AND AIDS AN AIDS CASE ILLUSTRATIONS Foreword By Martin Welz The upside of democracy is that every citizen has the right of access to information, the right to express, exchange and debate different points of view and, finally, to a vote. The downside, of course, is that each citizen is burdened with the responsibility of having to think for himself. That, in a nutshell, is what the investigative magazine noseweek is about, and why, prompted by the author of this book nearly two years ago, noseweek published a series of articles titled Rethinking AIDS. For the first time South Africans were exposed to a critical re-evaluation of HIV and AZT undertaken by a number of very eminent scientists. Clearly, many South Africans, reared in a society where for half a century they were forbidden to think for themselves, now find it too onerous a responsibility. They long for the quick fix. If AIDS is a problem, there must be a pill for it - which the government must pay for. Anyone, be it politician or pharmaceutical company, who is prepared to offer them that assurance, no matter how recklessly, is eagerly assumed to be right - because that lets us off the hook and instantly makes us feel good. The fact that it may not make the AIDS sufferers feel any better is, apparently, of no consequence. Conversely, anyone who raises questions about AIDS exposes our vulnerability, and clearly makes many people, including the president of the South African Medical Research Council and the editor of the Mail and Guardian, very, very angry. Some abandon any attempt at thought - such as Sunday Times writer Laurice Taitz, who, in reporting the AZT controversy, gaily took it upon herself to declare to her readers: �the truth is the drug is not toxic.� Read this b...