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AZT : A Drug in search of a Disease
AZT is not a new drug. It was not created for the treatment of AIDS and is not an antiviral. AZT is a chemical compound that was developed - and abandoned --- over 30 years ago as a potential chemotherapy treatment for cancer. 108 Prior to the first AIDS drug trials in 1986, AZT had never been administered to human beings.
Chemotherapy works by killing all growing cells in the body. Many cancer patients do not survive chemotherapy due to its destructive effects on the immune system and intestines. Because of the damage it causes, chemotherapy is never used as a prevention for cancer, and is only administered for very limited amounts of time.
Since cancer is a condition of persistently growing cells, AZT was designed to prevent the formation of new cells by blocking development of DNA chains. In 1964, experiments with AZT on mice with cancer showed that AZT was so effective in destroying healthy growing cells that the mice died of extreme toxicity. 110 As a result, AZT was shelved and no patent was ever filed. Twenty years later, the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome (now Glaxo - Wellcome) began a campaign to remarket AZT as an anti- HIV drug based on the idea that AZT would block the formation of HIV DNA chains. Glaxo-Wellcome won FDA approval for AZT as an AIDS treatment after one highly flawed study of only four months duration.¨111
Approval of this extremely toxic chemotherapy for use by AIDS patients was based on information that suggested AZT raised levels of T cells and therefore delayed the onset of AIDS indicator diseases. The rise noted in T cells was interpreted as evidence that AZT eradicated HIV in T cells, a concept for which there is no scientific proof. Although the study was halted before any long term effects of AZT were known, proponents established that standard treatment with AZT should be continuous and lifelong.
A multitude of independent studies conducted before and after FDA approval, including the Concorde study- the largest (1,749 subjects) and longest (three years in duration) study on AZT-determined that AZT increases T cells counts only moderately and briefly without improving health and that it does not delay onset of AIDS indicator diseases. 112
The brief rise in T cells noted when AZT use is initiated is due to the toxic nature of the drug and to the blood system's response to the destruction of bone marrow. 113 As AZT destroys bone marrow, the blood system attempts to correct this depletion by overproducing T cells, often creating more new T cells than the number found in a patient's blood prior to beginning treatment. But as the source of these new T cells - the bone marrow - is killed off by AZT, the level of T cells drops lower, ultimately causing complete destruction of the immune system. Individual tolerance to, and absorption of AZT determine length of survival on this toxic compound.
Following recommendations for "early intervention," one-third to one-half of HIV positives who develop AIDS do so only after taking AZT. Independent studies have shown that AZT actually accelerates clinical decline and decreases quality of life, at times even causing death before any AIDS defining illnesses appear-an occurrence officially described as "death without any preceding AIDS-defining event." 114
The concept of "HIV mutation" has become a popular explanation for the fall in T cells observed in patients treated with AZT. Promoters of the mutation hypothesis assert that the positive effects of AZT are diminished by mutant strains of HIV that become resistant to the drug. There is, however, no scientific evidence to substantiate their claim.
AIDS by Prescription ? 115
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The following conditions are caused by nucleoside analog drugs (AZT, ddl, ddC, d4T and 3TC). Conditions followed by a bullet (.) are official AIDS - defining illnesses :
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| Anemia (requiring transfusions) |
Lymphoma (cancer) . |
| Birth defects |
Muscle wasting . |
| Diarrhea . |
Nausea |
| Dementia . |
Neuropathy |
Fertility impairment
Granulocytopenia |
Pancreatitis
Pancytopenia |
Hair loss
Headaches |
Seizures
Skin discolorations |
| Liver damage |
Spontaneous abortion |
| Loss of appetite |
T cell depletion . |
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In addition to destroying T cells, B cells and the red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body, AZT and other nucleoside analog drugs destroy the kidneys, liver, intestines, muscle tissue, and the central nervous system. Nuceloside analog drugs also interfere with the activities of mitochondria, the subcellular particles that are the energy factories of every living cell in the body. Mitochondria contain their own DNA which makes them vulnerable to the effects of nucleoside analogs.
Epivir (3TC), Zerit (D4T) , Hivid (ddC) and Videx (ddI) are all nucleoside analog drugs prescribed to HIV positives as "antivirals". All are modeled after AZT, and all work in the same manner.
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Granulocytopenia : Loss or reduction of the number of granulocytes, a group of white blood cells that fight infection. These white blood cells contain a variety of enzymes used to destroy infectious agents.
Pancytopenia : Generalized loss or reduction of white blood cells.
B cells : One of two principle types of lymphocytes (white blood cells). B cells are transformed into plasma cells that secrete immunoglobulins or antibodies that destroy invading microorganisms. The protective effect of immunoglobulins is called humoral immunity.
Nucleoside analog : A synthetic compound similar to one of the components of DNA or RNA. Nucleoside analogs such as AZT act as artificial caps to DNA chains which prevent real DNA units from being added. For this reason these drugs are often referred ro as DNA chain terminators.
108 - Duesberg P 1996 Inventing the AIDS Virus Regnery Press, Washington DC p 309 - 359.
110 - Duesberg P 1996 Inventing the AIDS Virus Regnery Press Washington DC p 309 - 359.
111 - Lauritsen J 1993 The AIDS War Askelpios, New York, FDA documents Show Fraud in AZT Trials p 381 - 397.
112 - Lancet 1993 343 :871, Concorde Coordinating Committee ; journal of the American Medical Association 1988 203 : 3009 ; New England Journal of Medicine 1992 326 : 437. Source : Hand T Why Antiviral Drugs Cannot Resolve AIDS Reappraising AIDS Vol 4 : 9 September 1996.
113 - Source : Interview with dr. Charles Thomas in video HIV = AIDS : Fact or Fraud ? Starvision Productions (Stephen Allen, prod) denver CO; Duesberg P 1996 Inventing the AIDS Virus Regnery Press, Washington DC p 309 - 359.
114 - British Medical Journal July 15 1995 p 156 -158 (49%) ; Science Magazine February 24, 1995 p 1080 (34%) ; JAMA 260 : 3009 1988 ; New England Journal of Medicine 1992, 326 : 437. Source : Hand T why Antiviral Drugs Cannot Resolve AIDS Reappraising AIDS Vol. 4 :9 September 1996.
115 - Merck Manual 1992 16th edition p 55, Merck Research Laboratories ; Glaxo - Wellcome information sheet accompanying Zidovudine. |
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