AIDS suffers should be cautious of would-be cures

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat Dr. Kevin Carmichael, of El Rio Special Immunizations in Tucson, peers over literature dealing with AIDS research and information, last week. Carmichael said he is concerned about problems with pseudo-scientific medicine and the false-hope it can create with people who suffer from AIDS.

Desperate for a chance to live, you purchase an instructional report on this possible cure, researched at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

The report suggests a patented device can pass a small electrical current through your blood at major artery points of the body, thereby reducing the viral count of HIV and possibly eliminating it over time.

The Bioelectrifier, now sold over the Internet by Indiana engineer Thomas Miller, is also being advertised as a possible cure for cancer, herpes, lupus, obesity, male-pattern baldness, and almost any microbe, virus, fungus, yeast infection or parasite present in the blood or lymph glands.

The construction schematics are provided in the report for $38. And with a little extra cash, you can purchase the device for $89.50. Depending on which Internet site you find the price may vary.

The author of the report is Wayne Green, editor of the 73 Amateur Radio Today magazine, and a journalist with a doctorate in entrepreneurship.

Green said he heard about the blood purifying device from a friend and decided to help spread the word.

Miller said Green has started numerous magazines and tends to be outspoken in the opinions he writes in his editorials.

"Sometimes people take him the wrong way," Miller said. "I don't think he's a nut; I just think he's interesting."

In his report, he says the FDA spends $230 million to get each new drug or medical procedure approved. The process can take up to 10 years.

The problem with the Bioelectrifier is there is no one willing to spend that amount of money on FDA approval. The last thing the "Medical Mafia" wants to see is a fast, cheap cure for AIDS, Green said.

However, Dr. Kevin Carmichael, M.D. for El Rio Special Immunizations here in Tucson said of the report: "It's really frightening." After a brief examination of the report, he said he is leary of the conspiracy theories it asserts.

In his report, Green claims the AIDS virus is a man-made virus created by the World Health Organization and was spread on purpose in Africa via Tuberculosis immunization shots.

But Carmichael said there are no immunization shots for Tuberculosis.

Green, however, said Carmichael is mistaken.

"He's ignorant. Very few doctors read medical literature," he said. "They just don't read."

What scientists are saying

Although research involving the purification of blood supply allegedly was conducted in the infectious disease department at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, researchers there said they have never heard of this cure being discovered in their laboratories.

Dr. Ruy Soeiro, M.D. in the infectious disease department at Albert Einstein, said scientists came to the college, with credentials he was not aware of, and brought a device.

The device applied an electrical current to a blood supply that consequently lowered the viral count in the supply, explained Dr. William Lyman, who at the time worked at Albert Einstein.

Lyman is now a pathologist at the Children's Hospital of Michigan.

He said his laboratory received a small grant to examine the "biocompatibility" of electric current.

The result was the reduction of the AIDS virus' ability to infect. However, Lyman said it did not kill the virus and it is not a cure for AIDS.

But Green said the college will not admit what the researchers found because: "They don't want the medical industry to hate them for inventing the cure."

The blood purification treatment was patented as a system for the treatment of blood or synthetic material being taken from a donor and delivered to a recipient, storage receptacle or recycling system.

The process was never patented as a purification treatment for blood within the human body.

"There is no evidence to show this is effective," Carmicheal said.

In fact, Miller includes a disclaimer at the end of his World Wide Web page.

The disclaimer states the electrical device is not to be used as a medical device. It is intended for electronic experiments and bioelectric research only.

The FDA's response"This is the kind of thing we want to hear about," said Rosario Vior, a spokesperson and AIDS-fraud investigator for the Los Angeles office of the Food and Drug Administration. "Our interest is to empower the consumers to assess the kinds of questions they should ask."

Vior said laws prohibit unsubstantiated claims of cures for terminal diseases such as AIDS.

Green said in his report the FDA has investigated him in the past, but when they showed up at his door in an attempt to confiscate materials, he had none to give them.

"It drives me crazy," said Jean Cicci, 43, who has had full-blown AIDS for 2 1/2 years. She tested positive for HIV 11 years ago and contracted the virus from intravenous heroin use.

Cicci is now a peer counselor with the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation. She said she knows people who would probably fall for a claim such as Green's.

"They jump on something like that in a heartbeat," she said. "I know I would."

Current drug therapy

Carmichael, who is Cicci's doctor, and the FDA also are concerned about Green's claim that patients must stop their drug therapy for the Bioelectrifier to work. Green said certain drugs are affected by the electric current.

Carmichael said it takes 10-15 years for HIV to progress to AIDS without treatment, and more than 90 percent of all AIDS deaths occur in people under the age of 30.

"It's going to become a disease of young heterosexual people," Carmichael said.

Carmichael has lost 60 patients a year to AIDS over the last five years- more than one patient per week. But in the last six months, only four of his patients have died from the disease.

"Up until recently, we didn't have effective HIV therapy," Carmichael said. "Now we have more potent therapy."

Carmichael believes within the next 15 years, the world will see an improvement in HIV therapy.

"I truly believe we may be able to prevent the development of AIDS," he said. "I see controlling HIV before curing HIV."

People who wish to contact a support group for HIV/AIDS can contact the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation at 322-6226 for more information.

Warning signs of a fraud:

• 1. Is there a lot of testimonial evidence?

• 2. Is there an emotional appeal?

• 3. Is the data unverified?

• 4. Are there exorbitant prices and/or claims?

• 5. Is there a lack of supporting evidence?

• 6. Are universal claims being made?

• 7. Are the wrong credentials provided?