The most prominent supporters of this hypothesis are Duesberg himself, biochemist and vitamin proponent David Rasnick, and journalist Celia Farber.

The scientific consensus is that the Duesberg hypothesis is incorrect, and that HIV is the cause of AIDS.

According to the Duesberg hypothesis, AIDS is not found in Africa.

Consistent with this hypothesis, studies that report the highest rates of PCP in Africa are those that use the most advanced diagnostic methods " Duesberg also claims that Kaposi's Sarcoma is " exclusively diagnosed in male homosexual risk groups using nitrite inhalants and other psychoactive drugs as aphrodisiacs ", but the cancer is fairly common among heterosexuals in some parts of Africa, and is found in heterosexuals in the United States as well.

The consensus in the scientific community is that the Duesberg hypothesis has been refuted by a large and growing mass of evidence showing that HIV causes AIDS, that the amount of virus in the blood correlates with disease progression, that a plausible mechanism for HIV's action has been proposed, and that anti-HIV medication decreases mortality and opportunistic infection in people with AIDS.

* the AIDS epidemic in Thailand cited by Duesberg as confirmation of his hypothesis is in fact evidence of the role of HIV in AIDS.

The discredited Duesberg hypothesis posits that HIV is a passenger virus in the etiology of AIDS.

Duesberg argues that there is a statistical correlation between trends in recreational drug use and trends in AIDS cases.

Since AIDS is now defined partially by the presence of HIV, Duesberg claims it is impossible by definition to offer evidence that AIDS doesn't require HIV.

According to Duesberg, common diseases are easily misdiagnosed as AIDS in Africa because " the diagnosis of African AIDS is arbitrary " and does not include HIV testing.

One of the reasons for using more HIV tests despite their expense is that, rather than overestimating AIDS as Duesberg suggests, the Bangui definition alone excluded nearly half of African AIDS patients.

Because reported AIDS cases in Africa and other parts of the developing world include a larger proportion of people who do not belong to Duesberg's preferred risk groups of drug addicts and male homosexuals, Duesberg writes on his website that " There are no risk groups in Africa, like drug addicts and homosexuals ," However, many studies have addressed the issue of risk groups in Africa and concluded that the risk of AIDS is not equally distributed.

Duesberg claims that the supposedly innocuous nature of all retroviruses is supported by what he considers to be their normal mode of proliferation: infection from mother to child in utero.

Duesberg does not suggest that HIV is an endogenous retrovirus, a virus integrated into the germ line and genetically heritable:

Duesberg claims as support for his idea that many drug-free HIV + people have not yet developed AIDS ; HIV / AIDS scientists note that many drug-free HIV + people have developed AIDS, and that, in the absence of medical treatment or rare genetic factors postulated to delay disease progression, it is very likely that nearly all HIV + people will eventually develop AIDS.

Mullis has drawn controversy for his association with prominent AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg, claiming that AIDS is an arbitrary diagnosis only used when HIV antibodies are found in a patient's blood.

There is broad scientific consensus that HIV is the cause of AIDS, but some individuals reject this consensus, including biologist Peter Duesberg, biochemist David Rasnick, journalist / activist Celia Farber, conservative writer Tom Bethell, and intelligent design advocate Phillip E. Johnson.

Duesberg notes that diseases associated with AIDS differ between African and Western populations, concluding that the causes of immunodeficiency must be different.

" Duesberg elsewhere states that " the typical virus reproduces by entering a living cell and commandeering the cell's resources in order to make new virus particles, a process that ends with the disintegration of the dead cell ".

In 1993, Nature published an editorial arguing that Duesberg had forfeited his right of reply by engaging in disingenuous rhetorical techniques and ignoring any evidence that conflicted with his claims.

However, following an interaction with prominent AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg in 1994, she began to question whether HIV causes AIDS.

Peter Duesberg argues that retroviruses like HIV must be harmless to survive: they do not kill cells and they do not cause cancer, he maintains.

af: Peter Duesberg

ca: Peter Duesberg

de: Peter Duesberg

es: Peter Duesberg

fr: Peter Duesberg

it: Peter Duesberg

pl: Peter Duesberg

pt: Peter Duesberg

fi: Peter Duesberg

In 1987 Peter Duesberg questioned the link between HIV and AIDS in the journal Cancer Research.

The advisory board of Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives includes many prominent AIDS denialists, such as Harvey Bialy, Peter Duesberg, Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, and David Rasnick.

Moreover, in addition to recreational drugs, Duesberg argues that anti-HIV drugs such as zidovudine ( AZT ) can cause AIDS.

Duesberg states that African AIDS cases are " a collection of long-established, indigenous diseases, such as chronic fevers, weight loss, alias “ slim disease ”, diarrhea and tuberculosis " that result from malnutrition and poor sanitation.

Duesberg has also argued that nitrite inhalants were the cause of the epidemic of Kaposi sarcoma ( KS ) in gay men.

Duesberg argued in 1989 that a significant number of AIDS victims had died without proof of HIV infection.

What Duesberg calls " the myth of an African AIDS epidemic ," among people " exists for several reasons, including:

On this key issue, Duesberg is, I believe, in error ," but " Duesberg has predicted, correctly, that the virus alone is not enough to explain all aspects of the immunodeficiency process.

Duesberg rejects a role in cancer for numerous viruses, including leukemia viruses, Epstein-Barr Virus, Human Papilloma Virus, Hepatitis B, Feline Leukemia Virus, and Human T-lymphotropic virus.

* The need, according to Duesberg, of the CDC, the WHO, and other health organizations to justify their existences, resulting in their " manufacturing contagious plagues out of noninfectious medical conditions.

Duesberg writes, " retroviruses do not kill cells because they depend on viable cells for the replication of their RNA from viral DNA integrated into cellular DNA.

Duesberg also rejects the involvement of retroviruses and other viruses in cancer.