Sickening denial with a body count...

http://www.aliveandwell.org/

Alive and well is perhaps one of the most hideous websites on the internet, and this website comes with a body count.

Time and again people ask why alternative therapies and alternative medicine are a problem, and time and again websites such as this prove beyond all doubt that there is a serious problem with magical thinking, and having only a loose grip on reality.

The premise of the website is that the HIV virus does not cause AIDS and from this patent nonsense they have spun lies which inevitably will cause a loss of life which is simply unnecessary.

HIV is a horrible disease, I wrote my dissertation on it's evolution and so I have spent a fair amount of time reading about it. The need to find a cure is one of the major challenges modern medicine faces, along with a cure for cancer.

The scope of the AIDS epidemic is simply staggering (have a look at the World Health Organisation summary statistics here).

There have been some seriously f**ked up incidences surrounding HIV/AIDS (notably the case of Matthias Rath (right), brilliantly covered in Ben Goldacre's book Bad Science (if you haven't read it, do)).



The only serious contender for HIV/AIDS treatment at the moment is far from perfect: a cocktail of drugs used simultaneously to minimise the evolution resistance by the virus. It simply delays the inevitable, but the opportunity to have 20 years longer life is a no-brainer.

This is why these (and by these I mean aliveandwell and others) websites give people the idea that this disease is treatable, and curable, by methods which are frankly ridiculous. The scientific method and in particular evidence based medicine is there to test the effectiveness of drugs and quite frankly the fact that this websites says that HOMEOPATHY can cure HIV/AIDS is beyond stupid, and beyond irresponsible. And it robs families of time with their loved ones.

The fact that some of these people will be mothers worsens the situation, because (untreated) the transmission of HIV from mother to child via the placenta and breast feeding is almost guaranteed.


This is why the skeptical movement is so important, and why critical thinking should be the mainstay of everyones decision making. And the realisation that arguments from authority carry no weight whatsoever.


Chris