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Saturday, November 22, 2008
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DISEASE
PROGRESSION
DESPITE
ANTIBODIES
It has been argued that HIV cannot
cause AIDS because the body develops HIV-specific antibodies following primary
infection (Duesberg, 1992). This reasoning ignores numerous examples of viruses
other than HIV that can be pathogenic after evidence of immunity appears (Oldstone,
1989). Primary poliovirus infection is a classic example of a disease in which
high titers of neutralizing antibodies develop in all infected individuals, yet
a small percentage of individuals develop subsequent paralysis (Kurth, 1990).
Measles virus may persist for years in brain cells, eventually causing a chronic
neurological disease despite the presence of antibodies (Gershon, 1990). Viruses
such as cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex and varicella zoster may be activated
after years of latency even in the presence of abundant antibodies (Weiss and
Jaffe, 1990). Lentiviruses with long and variable latency periods, such as visna
virus in sheep, cause central nervous system damage even after the specific production
of neutralizing antibodies (Haase, 1990). Furthermore, it is now well-documented
that HIV can mutate rapidly to circumvent immunologic control of its replication.
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