The relationship between being testing as HIV positive and actually catching AIDS is not so straightforward as the public is often led to believe. The problem is not only that the tests themselves are inconclusive at best. Even if one assumes that a positive test really does indicate the presence of the HIV virus, the relationship between having this virus in the bloodstream and actually contracting AIDS is still less than clear. One plausible hypothesis is that the presence of the HIV virus is a necessary but not sufficient condition for contracting AIDS.

Considerable evidence points to the possibility that AIDS should be thought of as a disease of poverty. It seems probable that a person’s susceptibility to becoming infected with HIV in the first place may be related to his or her general health and nutrition, just as is the case for other viruses. Also, it is not at all certain that the presence of the virus alone will inevitably lead to contracting the disease in the absence of a immune system that is not already compromised by the many physical and social stresses that are endemic in poverty stricken environments. Ending poverty may be the only real answer to the AIDS epidemic.

In the context of so many unanswered questions about the relationship of AIDS to the HIV virus, the abusive medical practices that were perpetrated on the children in the situations described in the attached article by Liam Scheff suggest a number of medical developments that are quite disturbing:

The Power of Pharmaceuticals. It is becoming increasingly clear that large pharmaceuticals have gained significant control over the medical profession and over our government, and that they have succeeded in establishing a public health policy that is driven solely for profit regardless of the harm it does to people who are not sufficiently powerful to protect themselves from its excesses.

Medicine As Social Control. The medical establishment has become an instrument of social control that functions at time in a very fascist manner. Underneath this issue one sees the problem of technology when it is applied to human reality without very strong human-rights safeguards. Technology is about control. The autonomy of the objects to be controlled is, from a technological point of view, a problem to be solved. When the objects to be controlled are human beings, this need for control comes into conflict with the right of self-determination that individuals are supposed to be accorded in a free society.

Elitist Values. The elitist values of a class society are deeply ingrained in the medical system of our society. It is hard to believe that the children of wealthy parents would be treated in the manner that is described in Sheff’s article.

The Integrity of Science. The more one reads about the manner in which the AIDS epidemic is being handled the more one realizes that the integrity of science itself has been profoundly compromised in our society. Big business buys the scientific results it wants. This creates a huge credibility gap. Before one accepts the “findings” of science on issues where money is at stake, it is now necessary to look at the financial affiliations and commitments of the person making the statement. When the direction of scientific inquiry is determined by the profit motive, huge distortions in the findings of science can be expected – and that is in fact what we are seeing.

The Brutality of Unethical Medical Practice. Finally, of course, one is disturbed by the shear brutality of the treatment that was hoisted on the children that are described in this article. Essentially we find here a situation in which perfectly healthy children were forced against their wills to take medicines that made them profoundly ill and in some cases killed them. This could not have happened in a society in which science and child-protection functioned independently of big business.

The article below is part of a longer presentation (link to full article). A few other links are provided at the end of the article. The reader is encouraged to question all of his or her assumptions about AIDS and to use this simply as a jumping off point for a deeper investigation. It is hard to imagine a situation in which socio/economic factors determine so clearly the health of both individuals and of whole nations. To speak of addressing the AIDS epidemic without addressing the political, social and economic factors surrounding it is to bury ones head in the sand.

Liam Scheff

This article deals with pharmaceutical abuse in a children’s home in NYC. This piece was investigated and written in summer through winter of 2003 and published in January 2004, with occasional updates. The story broke wide in early 2004, with coverage in the New York Post and the New York Press. It served as the basis of investigation for the BBC film “Guinea Pig Kids,” and has prompted further investigation by the Associated Press - as well as a pointed attack by the New York Times. The investigation is ongoing. Liam Scheff. E-mail : liamscheff@yahoo.com

New York’s Washington Heights is a 4-story brick building called Incarnation Children’s Center (ICC). This former convent houses a revolving stable of children who’ve been removed from their own homes by the Agency for Child Services. These children are black, Hispanic and poor. Many of their mothers had a history of drug abuse and have died. Once taken into ICC, the children become subjects of drug trials sponsored by NIAID (National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease, a division of the NIH), NICHD (the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) in conjunction with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies - GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Genentech, Chiron/Biocine and others.

The drugs being given to the children are toxic - they’re known to cause genetic mutation, organ failure, bone marrow death, bodily deformations, brain damage and fatal skin disorders. If the children refuse the drugs, they’re held down and have them force fed. If the children continue to resist, they’re taken to Columbia Presbyterian hospital where a surgeon puts a plastic tube through their abdominal wall into their stomachs. From then on, the drugs are injected directly into their intestines.

In 2003, two children, ages 6 and 12, had debilitating strokes due to drug toxicities. The 6-year-old went blind. They both died shortly after. Another 14-year old died recently. An 8-year-old boy had two plastic surgeries to remove large, fatty, drug-induced lumps from his neck.

This isn’t science fiction. This is AIDS research. The children at ICC were born to mothers who tested HIV positive, or who themselves tested positive. However, neither parents nor children were told a crucial fact – HIV tests are extremely inaccurate.(1,2) The HIV test cross-reacts with nearly seventy commonly-occurring conditions, giving false positive results. These conditions include common colds, herpes, hepatitis, tuberculosis, drug abuse, inoculations and most troubling, current and prior pregnancy.(3,4,5) This is a double inaccuracy, because the factors that cause false positives in pregnant mothers can be passed to their children - who are given the same false diagnosis. Most of us have never heard this before. It’s undoubtedly the biggest secret in medicine. However, it’s well known among HIV researchers that HIV tests are extremely inaccurate - but the researchers don’t tell the doctors, and they certainly don’t tell the children at ICC, who serve as test animals for the next generation of AIDS drugs. ICC is run by Columbia University’s Presbyterian Hospital in affiliation with Catholic Home Charities through the Archdiocese of New York.

Sean and Dana Newberg are two children from ICC. Their mother used drugs and was unable to care for them properly, so they were raised in foster care, until their great-aunt Mona adopted them. Mona Newberg is a teacher in the New York Public Schools, and has her Master’s degree in Education. She adopted the children when Sean was three and Dana was six. She was already raising their older brother, who was never given an HIV test or AIDS drugs. He’s now grown, healthy and serving in the Navy.

Their mother used heroin and crack cocaine since she was a teenager. She was given an HIV test in the late 80s and tested positive. “She had three children before Sean and Dana,” said Mona. “Nobody told us that the test cross-reacted with drug abuse, let alone pregnancy. It’s not a valid test.”

Because of the test result, the doctors at Columbia Presbyterian put Sean on AZT monotherapy when he was 5 months old. Use of AZT monotherapy is now considered malpractice because it can cause debilitating, fatal illness including fatal anemia.

Dana spent her first four years at Hale House, a NY orphanage for children whose parents abused drugs. Hale house was participating in an AZT drug trial when Dana was there. “We can’t get the records from Hale House, so I don’t know what happened there,” Mona said. “I never gave Dana the drugs after I got her, but I know she arrived with a filled prescription for AZT.” Sean has been on life support twice as a result of the AIDS drug Nevirapine. Dana was put on AIDS drugs in 2002, even though she wasn’t sick. Since being put on the drugs, Dana has developed cancer.

Both children have been taken into ICC and kept there against their will and against Mona’s wishes for one reason - Mona has questioned the safety of the AIDS drugs AZT, Nevirapine and Kaletra and stopped giving the drugs when they made the children ill. In the summer and fall of 2003, I visited Mona, Sean, Dana and ICC. I spoke with Mona about her experience and her decision. (The names of Sean, Mona and Dana are aliases which they requested to protect their identities, but their stories are accurate and unaltered).

Liam Scheff: What led you to question the safety of the drugs?

Mona: When I first got Sean at three years old, he was a vegetable. He’d never eaten solid food. He had a feeding tube that went through his nose into his stomach. AIDS medications change the taste buds. AZT, especially, makes it so kids can’t stand the taste of food and won’t eat. The nurses fed Sean AZT, Bactrim and six cans of Pediasure a day through this tube, which stayed in his stomach for over two years. Nobody ever bothered to change it.

When I got Sean, I continued to give him the drugs as prescribed for about 5 months. But after each spoonful, he got weaker. I thought, wait a minute - this stuff is supposed to be making him better, why is he getting worse? Sean had night sweats and fevers 24 hours a day. He had no energy. He couldn’t play. He couldn’t get up for ten minutes without lying down. Nurses came regularly to give him blood infusions to manage the AZT anemia. After the infusions, he’d be nearly comatose for two days. He was like a limp doll. Every time I gave Sean the drugs, he got weaker and sicker. I didn’t know what to do but I didn’t want him to die. So I stopped everything that appeared to be killing him. I stopped the AZT. I stopped the Bactrim. I stopped the nurse from coming to give the infusions.

It wasn’t immediate, but Sean started to improve. His fevers subsided. He could eat. He gained weight. Within a couple months, he was actually running and playing with the other children. Sean was born with a chronic lung condition because of his mother’s drug use, but even his lungs improved. I couldn’t believe it. When Sean was born, the doctors told his mother that he was going to die. They told her to buy a coffin for him. He barely survived. When I took him off the drugs, he was healthy for the first time in his life.

I was so happy, I told everyone - including the doctors and nurses - what had happened. I didn’t know not to. When the hospital found out I wasn’t giving him the drugs, they contacted Agency for Child Services (ACS). An ACS worker came to my door, and told me I had to register the kids with an infectious disease doctor - Dr. Howard at Beth Israel. I was taking Sean and Dana to a Naturopathic MD, and they were both healthy and strong. I told them that we had a doctor. They said, “Too bad, you have to see Dr. Howard now.”

Howard was terrible for the children. He ignored the only thing that actually bothered Sean - his lung condition, and insisted that he go on a new drug for HIV. He said, “There’s a new miracle drug. It just came on the market. I guarantee if you give it to Sean, you’ll watch the miracle happen”.

LS: What was the miracle drug?

Mona: Nevirapine. Howard put Sean on Nevirapine. Sean’s health immediately deteriorated. He got sicker, his lungs congested, he lost weight, his cheekbones sunk, his liver and spleen started to go. Six months after he went on Nevirapine, he had complete organ failure. He was on life support for two weeks at Beth Israel Hospital. Then I did some research on Nevirapine, and found out that it caused organ failure and death. When Sean finally got out of the hospital, Howard discharged him on hospice care. Six months earlier, he was healthy. Now they were telling me to prepare for his death.

Once I got him home, I stopped giving Sean the Nevirapine, and he was able to eat again. He started to gain some weight back. Sean was so weak after being on life support, with all those tubes in him. He’d gotten so thin. But he finally started to recover. When I took Sean to Dr. Howard, he was always surprised to see that Sean was improving. Howard would ask me, “Are you sure you’re giving him the medication, Mrs. Newberg?”

LS: In times of improvement, he suspected that you weren’t giving Sean the Nevirapine?

Mona: Right. He only worried when Sean wasn’t sick! AIDS doctors always think there’s something wrong if you’re not dying.

After that Howard started keeping Sean in the hospital for longer periods of time for the lung problems we used to treat at home. Howard kept Sean for 25 days and fed Sean the Nevirapine himself. Sean ended up back in intensive care with organ failure. He was placed on life support for two weeks. He got a hospital staph infection because Howard wouldn’t let him leave. He was eight years old, and just wanted to come home.

A month later, the hospital finally discharged him. Then ACS called me for a meeting. The ACS worker told me I should put Sean into Incarnation Children’s Center until he was stronger. They told me that ICC was this wonderful place. They said in four months he’d be strong enough to come back home. ICC took Sean off the Nevirapine and put him on Viracept, Epivir, Zerit and Bactrim. Sean improved off the Nevirapine, but the new drugs definitely made him sick - just not as badly. He had trouble walking, and his arms and legs got even thinner. I visited Sean at ICC for five months. Then, when I wanted to bring him home, they said, “We don’t recommend that Sean leave here. You have a reputation for not giving meds.”

LS: ICC refused to let Sean come home?

Mona: Right. They kept him for a year and a half. I had to get a lawyer to get him out.

LS: What was it like for Sean at ICC?

Mona: There were children in wheelchairs, on crutches, with deformations. There were AZT babies. Their heads have a different shape, with the eyes spaced wide and sunken in. The drugs cause severe developmental problems. Many children have misshapen, weak limbs and distended bellies. Many are learning disabled. The kids at ICC are constantly medicated with all kinds of drugs. When children refuse the drugs the nurses hold them down and force feed them. Sean wanted to get the hell out of there.

During my visits I noticed that many children at ICC were walking around with tubes hanging from their undershirts, and I wondIntroduction:ered what they were. Then one day, I saw the nurse come in with a whole tray of medications and syringes, and I watched her inject this medication into the tubes coming out of their stomachs. I couldn’t believe it. I thought, my god, what’s going on here? Every child who had a stomach tube took their medication that way, from the three-year-olds to the teenagers. It horrified me. I couldn’t understand it. When I found out what was being done, I thought, surely this must be illegal. There’s no way they could be doing this legally.

I expressed my concerns to Sean’s ACS case worker. I said, “Do you know what they’re doing to those kids in there? This reminds me of Nazi Germany.” He said, “They’re doing wonderful things for these children.” I called Albany, the state capital, and talked to Dan Tietz at the New York State Department of Health’s AIDS Institute. He said, “What are we going to do if these little children refuse to take the medication? How are we going to save their lives if we don’t perform this operation?”

LS: Who performs this operation?

Mona: The children are sent to Columbia-Presbyterian for the operation. The surgeons there do it.

I was at ICC one day, and saw a fourteen-year old boy named Daniel refusing the pills. I actually saw him run from the nurse when she came to give him his medication. He said, “The medication makes me sick and I don’t want to take it.” His aunt was there, and she said, “The medication makes him very ill.” The ACS case worker, Wendy Wack, came in, and said to the aunt very clearly, “Daniel has refused to take his medication. We’ve changed it three times and he’s still refusing. Now, the only thing left is the operation.” She said, “If you refuse the operation, we’ll call Agency for Child Welfare - and take Daniel away from you.” His aunt signed, and they took Daniel away. When he came back a few weeks later, he had a tube in his stomach.

LS: Does Sean have the tube?

Mona: No. He doesn’t want that tube in his stomach. He’s been there long enough to know you get the tube if you say no to the medication. He’s terrified, so he never refuses the drugs.

The children at ICC who don’t have the tubes tend to be a whole lot healthier and live a whole lot longer than the ones with the tubes.

I was talking to a boy named Amir. He’s 6. His stomach was so swollen. He said, “My stomach is swollen, it got big.” He said, “They cut me,” and he showed a little cut on his side. He’s had a tube for a long time. Amir was an AZT baby. His face has that wider shape. He also has lypodystrophy from the drugs. He has huge fat lumps on his back and neck. They’ve taken him away for surgery twice but the lumps grow back.

Sean’s little friend Jesus just died. He was 12. He had a tube. He had a stroke from the drugs. There was a little girl, Mia. She had a tube. She had a stroke and went blind. She died recently too. Carrie, a 14-year-old girl died last year. She had a tube. There’s a three-year-old, Patricia. She’s had a tube since she arrived. She’s going home with it in her. I don’t think she’s going to make it.

I used to talk with the child care workers about the drugs. I got to know all of them and they were all very friendly with me. I said, “These drugs are killing the children.” They said, “We know.”

LS: They agreed with you?

Mona: Yes, but what can they do, they just take care of the kids. The doctors and nurses give the medication. Telling the doctors that the drugs make you sick doesn’t do anything. They just stare at you blankly. They don’t care. Compliance is the main goal of ICC. All the kids in ICC come from families who’ve failed to comply with the drug regimen.

LS: ICC is part of a national program running AIDS drug trials. Have you ever signed a waiver permitting them to use your children in a drug trial?

Mona: No, never. But ACS has signed for me when I didn’t want to give Sean drugs. When I said, “No,” the ACS case worker grabbed the form and said, “I’ll sign it. You don’t need to.” They’re always switching medications - they never ask me if it’s okay.

Right now, most of the kids at ICC are on Kaletra. Kaletra was on fast-track approval. It was released before testing was complete. But they do know something about Kaletra. It causes cancer. It says on the label, that this drug causes cancer in test animals.

I fought for a year to get Sean home. ICC wanted to put him in a foster home where someone would be paid to feed him the drugs every day. I got a lawyer and we finally got Sean out of there. My lawyer was able to get Sean’s ICC medical records. He told me, “Sean was tortured at Incarnation. He was tortured.” Dana

In 2002, just as Mona got Sean back from ICC, the doctors decided that Dana (Sean’s sister) should be put on AIDS drugs, even though she wasn’t ill. Mona: Dana wasn’t sick. She’d never had a major illness. The doctors said her Tcells were low, so he put her on Viracept, Epivir, Zerit, and Bactrim.

LS: What was her reaction to the drugs?

Mona: She was throwing up constantly. Over the next two months, she started complaining of back and head pain, which got so bad I had to take her to the emergency room.

Beth Israel diagnosed it as Langerhans Syndrome, which is a childhood disease similar to cancer. Langerhans affects bone. It damaged one of her vertebrae. It can be treated with chemotherapy, but it’s a low level dose, much lower than a standard cancer treatment.

Beth Israel knew about Dana’s HIV status. They told me, “We’re going to ship her over to Presbyterian for a new diagnosis. Because of her HIV status, there may be a possibility that this is AIDS.”

So they sent her to Presbyterian, where the doctor wrote in her records - “Langerhans Syndrome” but added, “May be associated with HIV.” Langerhans Syndrome is not an AIDS-defining illness. There is no entry anywhere in the medical record of an association between Langerhans and HIV. But Presbyterian called it AIDS and gave her a much stronger chemotherapy appropriate for an adult cancer. Then they switched her medication to Kaletra.

LS: Kaletra - that’s the fast-track approved drug that causes cancer?

Mona: Right. It states clearly in the manufacturers insert that Ritonavir - one of the ingredients in Kaletra - causes cancer in test animals, and that testing isn’t complete in humans. How do you give a child with cancer a drug that causes cancer?

The Kaletra made her heave and throw up. They were afraid that she’d become crippled if her back shifted in any way. So they put a brace on her to keep her still, and kept her on the drug. They gave her three months of chemotherapy, and the cancer was gone. They couldn’t find a trace of it. But they gave her another 3 months of chemotherapy anyway.

Right after her diagnosis in January (2003), Presbyterian called ACS and said I was putting Dana in jeopardy by not giving her the drugs. ACS took Dana out of our home and put her into ICC.

We went to court to get her back. Dana’s doctor at Presbyterian had to testify. When she was questioned under oath, she listed all the deadly side effects of the drugs - all of them. She knew exactly what all of them did. The judge asked her how she got the kids to take the drugs. And she said “We’re like Nazis when it comes to compliance.” Those were her words.

The Department of Health came to ICC three weeks ago for an inspection. They said that the children could no longer be restrained when they didn’t want to take the drugs. They said that the children didn’t have to take the drugs if they didn’t want to; they have a legal right to refuse medications. But the social workers and doctors told the children, “Sure you can refuse, but if you do there will be consequences.”

LS: What are the consequences?

Mona: The surgery.

Today Dana remains at ICC. She is 16. ACS is trying to put her in a foster home where she’ll live with a stranger who’s paid to give her the drugs. Mona is trying to bring her home. In August 2003, The Make-a-Wish foundation gave Dana the gift of a Disney Cruise to Bermuda. ACS told Dana that she was not allowed to leave the country, and canceled her trip. Sean’s blood is tested regularly to make sure that he’s taking the drugs. He’s been on AIDS drugs all his life. He weighs 51 pounds and is about 4 feet tall. Sean is now 13 years old.

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