Subject: Health Dept Invasion (Pt. 1)
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 15:02:06 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: August 20, 1996

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Ronnie Burk:  (415) 864-0731
Jon Swindell: (415) 826-2715
Michael Bellefountaine: (415) 487-9954
  
Health Department Invasion (Part 1):
ACT UP SF Crashes Meeting To Protest
Poisonous AIDS Prevention Proposal.
--------------------
AIDS activists challenge San Francisco Health Department Director Sandra
Hernandez to publicly debate alleged merits of proposed forced antiviral
dosing plan.

San Francisco - Twenty protesters from ACT UP San Francisco, outraged by a
controversial AIDS prevention proposal that would force San Francisco's
HIV-infected to take regimens of unproven AIDS drugs, crashed the monthly
meeting of the Health Commission to challenge the city's health director to a
public debate on the plan's alleged merits and dangers.

Public Health Director Sandra Hernandez, who is lesbian, announced her novel
AIDS prevention proposal immediately after the 11th International Conference
on AIDS in a San Francisco Bay Times  article by Terry Beswick entitled
 "Treatment Combinations Herald a New Era: People Living With AIDS Hope,
While Officials Worry."  

In the optimistic yet scientifically unreferenced article, Hernandez claimed
that early and constant medication with potent experimental AIDS
chemotherapies like AZT, ddI and protease inhibitors renders people with HIV
"less infectious." Furthermore, she encouraged the use of the new compounds
as "morning-after pills" by stating that "you can potentially eliminate new
infections if you got people started on protease inhibitors plus one or two
other drugs" immediately after they engaged in unsafe sex. Most frightening
of all, stated ACT UP dissidents, was Hernandez's threat to implement Direct
Observational Therapy (DOT) to ensure proper dosing of the AIDS community
with these drugs that, activists note, have been on the market for less than
a year. It is alleged that virulent strains of HIV can form in patients who
fail to consistently take these powerful agents on schedule.

In such a scenario, DOT would mandate by law that all HIV-positive San
Franciscans show up at a designated health clinic to consume state-prescribed
AIDS drugs in the presence of a public health official. If the patient misses
a scheduled dosing or refuses to take the pills, he or she would be jailed
and forced to comply. Hernandez admitted in the article that in order for DOT
to work "you would have to track everybody and [the patient's HIV status]
would have to be reportable as tuberculosis is."

As Tuesday's Health Commission meeting got underway, stealth activists
strategically dispersed throughout the audience, leapt to their feet in
unison, blew whistles, scattered fake death certificates that accused
Hernandez of "mass murder" and chanted "D.O.T.'s A Bitter Pill To Force-Feed
Toxic Drugs That Kill!" 

Simultaneously, three members of the ACT UP affinity group SPITT (Stop
Promoting Immunosuppressive Toxic Treatments) stormed the Health Commission
panel, jumped on the conference table and unfurled a banner emblazoned with a
skull and crossbones that read "Poisons Don't Prevent AIDS." Activists then
presented Hernandez with a statement of demands as others spat in the faces
of representatives from the city's AIDS office for remaining silent in the
face of what they term a "sinister scheme."  Activists escaped before the
arrival of authorities; there were no arrests. The Health Commission meeting
was delayed approximately 20 minutes.

"As a Latino gay man I am outraged that Dr. Hernandez would propose forcing
anyone to take dangerous compounds that cause severe side effects, that harm
the immune system and that can kill if mixed with everyday drugs like
Seldaine," stated HIV-positive activist Ronnie Burk. "We know that these drug
pushers don't have a scientific leg to stand on when promoting fascist
schemes like D.O.T. It's obvious that health officials, not people with HIV,
are San Francisco's real public health menaces."

Activists charged health officials with deliberately misleading the AIDS
community into believing that artificially lowering viral load in the blood
with expensive drugs reduces viral infectiousness and eliminates HIV
throughout the body. They cited numerous scientific studies that cast serious
doubt on the predictive value of viral load testing in determining clinical
outcome, disease progression or the effectiveness of AIDS treatments on
overall health of PWAs.

"The disadvantages of [viral load] assays are fundamental. First, it is
unclear whether circulating plasma viral products (RNA, viral protein or
intact virions) all give internally consistent results. Second, it is unclear
whether plasma viral load is the main measure of HIV disease activity. Third,
the quantitative relationship between changes in viral load and drug efficacy
is completely unknown. Finally, the relationship between drug efficacy and
changes in viral load may differ between different classes of drugs,"
reported Tim Peto, an expert in the area of surrogate markers, in the May
1996 Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. "At present, there is no
convincing evidence that current surrogate markers can be reliably used to
predict the clinical efficacy of new treatments." 

 In addition to a public debate with Hernandez about the alleged value of
antiviral drugs and Direct Observational Therapy, ACT UP members demanded
that the Public Health Department stop recommending that HIV-positive
individuals enroll in clinical trials that test drugs and cease distributing
antiviral therapy promotional materials to those who test HIV-positive at
city STD clinics.

"Today's action was a  mild warning to officials at the Department of Public
Health. Stop pushing these dangerous drugs down our community's throat,"
warned AIDS dissident Antonia Crane. "San Francisco is viewed as a model of
how the rest of the nation should respond to AIDS. This intolerable proposal
will ruin the lives of PWAs across the country; especially in rural,
conservative areas. Make no mistake, today's invasion was just the beginning
of our efforts to stop DOT dead in its tracks!"

ACT UP members stated that today's action was the latest in their campaign to
challenge the use of chemotherapeutic agents in treating diseases of immune
suppression. Activists demand that the focus of AIDS research shift from
killing HIV to strengthening the cellular immune response with nontoxic
immune boosters like DNCB. ACT UP kicked off its campaign at the XI
International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver where they disrupted a major
scientific forum on antiviral therapies and demanded that AZT, the first
approved AIDS treatment, be immediately pulled from the market.

###

Press photos (digital & paper) of the "Health Department Invasion (Part 1)"
are available. For more information on this or other ACT UP SF actions
contact us at (415) 522-2907. Our mailing address is 1388 Haight Street,
#218, San Francisco, CA 94117. Fax: (415) 834-0243; Email: [email-masked].

==========

August 19, 1996

Sandra Hernandez
Director, Department of Public Health
101 Grove Street, Room 301
San Francisco, CA

This letter is a demand for scientific references to your statements in the
July 11, 1996 Bay Times article "Treatment Combinations Herald a New Era". In
this article you make three assertions: First, combination antiretroviral
treatment with protease inhibitors is an effective treatment against HIV/AIDS
because it reduces the infectiousness of HIV. Second, these treatments reduce
the level of virus in patients and should be administered to all gay men to
prevent HIV infection. Third, People With AIDS (PWAs) who refuse to dose
themselves are public health threats and must be forcibly medicated under the
auspices of Direct Observational Therapy (DOT). We demand that you supply ACT
UP San Francisco with detailed scientific references proving that combination
antiretroviral therapy with protease inhibitors reduces the infectiousness of
HIV in vitro and is a valid treatment for boosting the deficient cellular
immune system that controls the associated infections in AIDS (1).

First, you state that combination antiretroviral therapy with protease
inhibitors will reduce the infectiousness and level of HIV within the human
body. "I think from a therapeutic perspective...the data we have seen is a
phenomenal breakthrough. I think it holds huge promise." We need facts not
promises.

HIV is a retrovirus (2). In order to infect a cell (HIV can only reside
inside cells), HIV must transcribe itself into first viral then pro viral DNA
(3). This is how HIV becomes part of our genetic structure (4). Only by
focusing on the pro viral DNA within the infected cell will one achieve an
accurate reflection of what viral replication is happening in the body (5).
Where it is occurring is also an important question. The blood, which these
worthless drugs and tests focus on, contains less than 2% of the bodies' HIV
infected lymphocytes (6). This is a tiny sliver in a much bigger picture that
includes, among others, the lymphatic system, the lungs and the mucosal
tissue- a key area for HIV infection (7). These areas are ignored because the
treatments have no effect on them either (8). Reverse transcriptase
inhibitors are not specific for HIV (9). They destroy far many more healthy
than infected cells (10).

The use of PCR in determining these blood levels is fraudulent and misleading
(11). Like CD4 cell counts it is another numbers game, not reflective of
one's health but manipulated in order to pressure us into dosing up with
deadly drugs (12). Considering Kary Mullis, the man who received a Nobel
Prize for creating the PCR test, does not believe HIV causes AIDS, I ask you
Sandra, where do you get your information from (13)? Glaxo Wellcome? Roche?
Abbot?

Second, your claim that these drugs may have some benefit as a "morning-after
pill" for those who have engaged in unsafe sex has moved you from the realm
of public health advocate to pharmaceutical guinea pig supplier. "For the
individual who may not be practicing safe sex all the time, if they are
taking protease inhibitors regularly in combination with other antiretroviral
therapy, the presumably, their infectiousness would also be somewhat
decreased." Again, ACT UP San Francisco demands that you provide us with
scientific references proving HIV to be noninfectious in vitro after the use
of protease inhibitors.

Fifteen years and nothing has changed. AIDS=Gay Genocide now more than ever
with HIV infection still rising among young gay men (14). As with treatment
and research, all of your prevention efforts have failed. Your promotion of
toxic poisons to all gay men is unquestionably genocide because you continue
to ignore what is at the root of HIV infection: HOMOPHOBIA. San Francisco
receives millions every year for HIV prevention resulting in scant condoms
and insultingly pointless studies that are demeaning at best and homophobic
at worst (15). The money would be better spent funding radical, grassroots
queer activism to smash homophobia and end AIDS.

Any prevention effort, from safer sex to vaccines, must focus on boosting the
deficient cellular immune system (16). It is this activated arm of the immune
system that has kept people uninfected despite numerous unprotected sexual
encounters (17). HIV infection occurs not primarily through CD4 cells but
macrophages- a key lymphocyte of the cellular immune system (18). Only by
activating these cells along with CD8s (the cellular immune system's own
anti-HIV cell) will HIV infection be controlled and prevented (19). Again, to
treat or prevent HIV infection the cellular immune system must be activated-
not suppressed by toxic chemotherapies (20). Non-toxic affordable immune
boosters like DNCB should be used prophylactically to prevent HIV infection,
along with stress reduction, proper nutrition and health care and a
homophobia free society.

Finally, your flagrant promotion of DOT is nothing more than government
mandated murder. Despite the fact that most PWAs cannot afford these drugs
let alone proper health care, housing or nutrition, they must be dosed daily
with toxic chemotherapies that use fraudulent drug company data for support.
Your current method of spin control- blame the patient for missing a dose- is
Jesse Helm's wet dream come true. Next will come mandatory testing, names
reporting and contact tracing. We suppose the camps are already set up for
us. We didn't fail the drugs the drugs failed us!

The pharmaceutical promotion of CD4 cell and blood viral load counts with
toxic poisons is killing more people than AIDS ever could. PWAs must focus on
their CD8 cells and learn about boosting their cellular immune system. The
problem is not the virus but the deficient immune system. It is the
suppressed cellular immune system that allows for the outbreak of infections
that are lumped together and tagged AIDS (21).

ACT UP San Francsico demands the following:

1) Sandra Hernandez's removal from the Department of Public Health (DPH)
along with a public retraction for her statements if unable to provide
scientific references for her claims during a public debate. ACT UP members
will meet any time, any place to challenge the validity of DOT with antiviral
drugs.

2) The deletion in all promotional materials of the Department of Public
Health the recommendation that asymptomatic HIV positive individuals enroll
in government clinical trials that test toxic drugs.

3) The removal of all antiviral promotional materials that are distributed by
the DPH to individuals who test antibody positive to HIV in San Francisco STD
Clinics.

History will remember that you, Sandra Hernandez, a Latina dyke, chose to use
your position of power not to liberate gays and lesbians but to ensure a
fresh supply of faggot meat for the pharmaceutical industry pyre. When making
such claims in the press Sandra, do not be surprised when PWAs demand science
to back it up. Remember, THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!

References:

1) Clerici, M. AIDS 1993, 7 Suppl 1:S135-40.

2) Levy, J. "Viral and Immunologic Factors in HIV infection." Medical
Management of AIDS, 3rd edition, Eds. Merle Sande and Paul Volberding. WB
Saunders 1992.

3) Ibid.

4) Ibid.

5) Levy, J et al. Science 1996 Feb 2, 271:670-671.

6) Fauci A. NEJM 1993, 328:327-335.

7) Sei S et al. J Infect Dis. 1994, 170:325-33.

8) Levy, J. Lancet 1995 June 24, Vol 345:1619-1621.
     Barr M. "Attack of the Mutant Monster" POZ 1996 Aug/Sept, Pg.53.

9) Lisignoli G et al. Clin Exp Immunol 1993, 92:455-459.
     Heagy W et al. J Clin Invest 1991 Jun, 87(6):1916-24.
     Faraj A et al. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapies 1994 May,
38(5):924-30.

10) Christie Huw. "AZT & Concorde" Continuim Magazine, Vol 2 Issue 2 1994
April/May.

11) Caulfield Charles. "Fauci Says HIV Latency Period 'A Myth'" Anarchist
AIDS Medical Formulary North Atlantic Press, 1993.

12) Peto, T. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 1996 May, 37
(Suppl.B):161-170.
        Seligmann M et al. Lancet 1994 April 9, Vol 343:871-881.

13)  Mullis Kary. Preface to Inventing The AIDS Virus, Peter Duesberg.
Regenery Press 1996.

14)  Business Wire. Bay Area Reporter 1996 July 18, pg.17.

15)  Julian Phil. "Prevention: Up Close & Personal" SF Frontiers 1996 July
18, pg.21-22.

16)  Clerici M., Shearer G. Immun Lett 1996 Jun, 51:69-73.

17) Ibid.

18)  Shatlock R., Griffin G. "Mucosal Transmission of HIV" The Molecular
Biology of HIV/AIDS, Ed. A.M.L. Lever. John Wiley and Sons Ltd 1996.
       Zhu T. et al.Science 27 Aug 1993, Vol 261:1179-1181.

19) Clerici M., Shearer G. Immun Lett 1996 Jun, 51:69-73.

20) Lanzavechia A. Science 1993, 260:937-944.

21) Clerici M. et al. AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 20 Jul 1996,
12(11):S135-40.