Editing Duesberg hypothesis (section)

==Scientific response to the Duesberg hypothesis==
The [[scientific consensus|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 [[viral load|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 rate|mortality]] and [[opportunistic infection]] in people with AIDS.<ref name="niaid"/>

In {{nat|the 9 December 1994}} issue of ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'' (Vol. 266, No. 5191),<ref name="phenom" /> Duesberg's methods and claims were evaluated in a group of articles. The authors concluded that
* It is abundantly evident that HIV causes disease and death in [[hemophiliac]]s, a group generally lacking Duesberg's proposed risk factors.<ref name="niaid"/><ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1126/science.7992044 | last1 = Cohen | first1 = J. | year = 1994a | title = Duesberg and critics agree: Hemophilia is the best test | url = http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/cohen/266-5191-1645a.pdf | journal = Science | volume = 266 | issue = 5191| pages = 1645–1646 | pmid = 7992044 | bibcode=1994Sci...266.1645C}}</ref>
* HIV fulfills [[Koch's postulates]], which are one set of criteria for demonstrating a causal relationship between a microbe and a disease.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Cohen | first1 = J. | year = 1994b | title = Fulfilling Koch's postulates | url = http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/cohen/266-5191-1647.pdf | journal = Science | volume = 266 | issue = 5191| page = 1647 | pmid = 7992045 | doi=10.1126/science.7992045  }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Harden V |title=Koch's postulates and the etiology of AIDS: an historical perspective |journal=Hist Philos Life Sci |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=249–69 |year=1992 |pmid=1342726}} [http://www.history.nih.gov/NIHInOwnWords/assets/media/pdf/publications/Koch_Postulate.pdf Full text available] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105083156/https://history.nih.gov/NIHInOwnWords/assets/media/pdf/publications/Koch_Postulate.pdf |date=5 January 2017 }} from [[National Institutes of Health]] website.</ref> (Subsequently, additional data further demonstrated the fulfillment of Koch's postulates.<ref>{{Cite journal
 | last1 = O'Brien
 | first1 = SJ
 | last2 = Goedert
 | first2 = JJ
 | title = HIV causes AIDS: Koch's postulates fulfilled
 | journal = Current Opinion in Immunology
 | volume = 8
 | issue = 5
 | pages = 613–8
 | year = 1996
 | pmid = 8902385
| doi=10.1016/S0952-7915(96)80075-6
| url = https://zenodo.org/record/1260157
 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
 | last1 = Chigwedere | first1 = P.
 | last2 = Essex | first2 = M.
 | title = AIDS Denialism and Public Health Practice
 | journal = AIDS and Behavior
 | volume = 14
 | issue = 2
 | pages = 237–247
 | year = 2010
 | pmid = 20058063
 | doi = 10.1007/s10461-009-9654-7
| s2cid = 22822335
 }}</ref>)
* the [[AIDS epidemic in Thailand]] cited by Duesberg as confirmation of his hypothesis is in fact evidence of the role of HIV in AIDS.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Cohen | first1 = J. | year = 1994c | title = The epidemic in Thailand | url = http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/cohen/266-5191-1647.pdf | journal = Science | volume = 266 | issue = 5191| page = 1647 | pmid = 7992046 | doi=10.1126/science.7992046  }}</ref>
* According to researchers who conducted large-scale studies of AZT, the drug does not cause AIDS. Furthermore, researchers acknowledged that recreational drugs do cause immune abnormalities, though not the type of immunodeficiency seen in AIDS.<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1126/science.7992047 | last1 = Cohen | first1 = J. | year = 1994d | title = Could drugs, rather than a virus be the cause of AIDS? | url = http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/cohen/266-5191-1648a.pdf | journal = Science | volume = 266 | issue = 5191| pages = 1648–1649 | pmid = 7992047 |bibcode = 1994Sci...266.1648C }}</ref>

===Effectiveness of antiretroviral medication===
The vast majority of people with AIDS have never received antiretroviral drugs, including those in developed countries prior to the licensure of AZT ([[zidovudine]]) in 1987, and people in developing countries today where very few individuals have access to these medications.<ref>[http://www.unaids.org/html/pub/publications/fact-sheets04/fs_treatment_en_pdf.pdf UNAIDS, 2003] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614103019/http://www.unaids.org/html/pub/publications/fact-sheets04/fs_treatment_en_pdf.pdf |date=14 June 2007 }}.</ref>

The NIAID reports that {{Blockquote|in the mid-1980s, clinical trials enrolling patients with AIDS found that AZT given as single-drug therapy conferred a modest survival advantage compared [with] placebo. Among HIV-infected patients who had not yet developed AIDS, placebo-controlled trials found that AZT given as single-drug therapy delayed, for a year or two, the onset of AIDS-related illnesses. Significantly, long-term follow-up of these trials did not show a prolonged benefit of AZT, but also did not indicate that the drug increased disease progression or mortality. The lack of excess AIDS cases and death in the AZT arms of these placebo-controlled trials in effect counters the argument that AZT causes AIDS. Subsequent clinical trials found that patients receiving two-drug combinations had up to 50 percent improvements in time to progression to AIDS and in survival when compared with people receiving single-drug therapy. In more recent years, three-drug combination therapies have produced another 50 to 80 percent improvement in progression to AIDS and in survival when compared with two-drug regimens in clinical trials.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hivatis.org/guidelines/adult/AA_040705.pdf |title=HHS, 2005 |access-date=24 August 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004135919/http://www.hivatis.org/guidelines/adult/AA_040705.pdf |archive-date=4 October 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}{{Blockquote|Use of potent anti-HIV combination therapies has contributed to dramatic reductions in the incidence of AIDS and AIDS-related deaths in populations where these drugs are widely available, an effect which clearly would not be seen if antiretroviral drugs caused AIDS.<ref name="niaid"/>}}

===Opponents claim that nearly all HIV-positive people will develop AIDS===
Duesberg claims as support for his idea that many drug-free HIV-positive people have not yet developed AIDS; HIV/AIDS scientists note that many drug-free HIV-positive 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-positive people will eventually develop AIDS. Scientists also note that HIV-negative drug users do not suffer from immune system collapse.<ref name="drugusenature"/>