Chapter Thirty-One
Want To Do Something?
If you were diagnosed HIV-Positive, is there anything you can do?
The answer is a resounding YES! There are a number of things you can and should do. For example…
1. Educate yourself about the accuracy of the HIV tests and then decide for yourself whether your own diagnosis was right. You can find a lot of information about the tests at www.HelpForHIV.com.
2. Educate yourself about the HIV medications, called HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy), and decide for yourself (regardless of what anyone else is telling you) whether or not you want to take the 50-50 chance of dying from the side effects of these drugs.
3. Understand that what you believe about HIV and AIDS is the most important factor in losing or maintaining your health, and that stress is the biggest threat to your immune system. Don’t let the “nocebo effect” of the HIV=AIDS=Death hypothesis cause you to get sick and die. (Read The Biology of Belief by Dr. Bruce Lipton, or watch his hour-long seminar called The Biology of Perception on YouTube.)
4. Take positive action on your own behalf and on behalf of others. Here’s one suggestion you might consider….
Many states have laws about a patient’s right to “informed consent.” For example, the California Patient’s Guide says that you “have a right to know all risks, benefits, and treatment alternatives before consenting to any treatment.” This Patient’s Guide goes on to say that “informed consent is more than merely your agreement to a particular treatment or procedure. Informed consent is your agreement to a proposed course of treatment based on receiving clear, understandable information about the treatment’s potential benefits and risks.” The case law cited by the Guide for this statement (Cobb v. Grant) says that you must “receive sufficient information to make a meaningful decision” regarding your healthcare.
However, chances are that you were not given “sufficient information” or “clear, understandable information” by your doctor or hospital or clinic about the benefits and risks of taking an HIV test, either prior to taking the test or after receiving the test results. Therefore, you probably did not have the opportunity to give your informed consent to the procedure.
Read through the following list of things that would constitute lack of informed consent, and if you find one or more that are true in your own case, keep reading when you’re finished with the list…
~I was not informed that there were risks associated with merely taking an HIV test, as stated by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on their website.
~I was not informed that the FDA has never approved any test for the diagnosis of HIV infection.
~I was not informed that the so-called HIV tests are not a test for HIV, but for HIV antibodies.
~I was not informed that “there is no recognized standard for establishing the presence or absence of antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2 in human blood,” as stated on the printed insert that comes with an HIV ELISA Antibody test. In fact, I was never shown that printed insert.
~I was not informed that the proteins used in any HIV Antibody test have never been proven to be unique or specific for the HIV virus, or that many of the proteins used in the test kits have been found to be associated with things other than HIV in the human body.
~I was not informed that no HIV test has ever been validated; that is, there is no controlled study that proves what percentage of people testing HIV-Positive have been confirmed to have active HIV virus in their blood by a viral isolation culture, and what percentage of people testing HIV-Negative have been confirmed not to have active HIV virus in their blood.
~I was also not informed that scientific studies have shown that the HIV ELISA Antibody test can be wrong as much as 90% of the time, or warned that I might have a false positive test result and what that would mean.
~I was not informed that there are over seventy conditions that can cause a false positive reaction on an HIV Antibody test, or asked prior to or after taking the test whether I might have had one or more of those conditions that could create a false positive on my own test.
~I was not informed that if my test came back positive, it only signified that I might have the antibodies to HIV. However, in virtually every other case, having the antibodies to a virus means that a person is said to be immune from the disease that virus could cause, and I was not shown the scientific studies or the medical basis for claiming that having the antibodies to HIV is any different.
~I was not informed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had made an arbitrary decision in 1987 that a positive HIV test results equaled a current infection with HIV, and yet gave no scientific basis for that decision.
~I was not informed that processing my HIV Western Blot Antibody test varies from laboratory to laboratory. Nor was I informed why my doctor had decided that the laboratory results he received would be correct in my case and the scientific basis for that decision.
Are You Positive? Page 47