March 29, 2006

To The Editor, Harper's Magazine

Sir,

We applaud your publication of the article "Out of Control - AIDS and the Corruption of medical science", by Celia Farber, which brings to light the horrifying reality of so called “anti-HIV drugs”.

The fact that Joyce Ann Hafford continued to take drugs that were killing her, because she believed that she was protecting her baby, was particularly agonizing.

In India, the government has just begun to distribute “free” (public funded) ARV drugs in so-called “high risk states” as well as AZT and neverapine (two of the drugs that find mention in the article) to HIV positive pregnant women through public health institutions. We are aware that accompanied with poverty and an inadequate health infrastructure, the fate of many of these patients is going to be even worse than Joyce Ann Hafford’s.

In fact, the guidelines for administration of ARV drugs have been revised, and made more stringent for western nations, after officials were forced to acknowledge that their side effects were “far worse than originally believed”. But a different set of guidelines, with looser controls, have been issued for “resource poor settings”. We are also aware that neverapine has not been approved for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in the west – but the drug is being recommended for the same in developing countries.

So far, the official data estimates 4-5 million people to be infected with HIV in this country – but there has been no evidence of any abnormal increase in death rates, even in suspect “high risk groups” such as red light areas. But with potentially fatal drugs being pushed freely through the public health system, and consequent irresponsible and irrational use of the drugs by patients & ill trained doctors – we face the prospect of a massive epidemic of drug induced illness and death among HIV positive people – a scientific genocide – in this country

Another important point your article brings out is the undeclared, but all pervasive censorship that is applied on anything that even remotely raises a doubt about the safety of these drugs. This taboo extends even to questions asked by patients taking the drugs. We recently witnessed this on a popular eforum of HIV/AIDS officials, NGOs etc., when a few emails appeared from HIV positive people from different States, seeking advice regarding the high numbers of their members who were dying or suffering heavy ARV side effects (swelling, blood vomiting, diarhoea, rashes). Not only were these calls for help unanimously ignored by all the important members on the forum – but one leading NGO even accused the positive groups of being part of a “slanderous campaign” to “harm the very sanctity of ARVs”!

Which is why the publication of this article is all the more important – and we hope this is a turning point in the history of AIDS journalism.

Anju Singh
JACKINDIA
C- 38, Anand Niketan
New Delhi, India

email: hifd@bol.net.in