Vito Mbeki?: AIDS denialism at the Italian Ministry of Health

A policy analysis raises the specter of AIDS Denialism in the Italian Health Ministry. The study examined official records and found numerous cases where an AIDS diagnosis is discussed independent of HIV infection.

The authors initially investigated epidemiological evidence regarding HIV infection and AIDS in Italy using only official data published by the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) and by the Italian Ministry of Health (Ministero del Lavoro, della Salute e delle Politiche Sociali). The authors concluded that the Italian Ministry of Health appears to be convinced that HIV is not the [sole] cause of AIDS. The authors describe the serendipity of their findings:

“In the wake of the recent Nobel awards for Medicine, we wished to prepare an essay concerning the numbers of the AIDS epidemic in Italy and the efficacy of the Italian Ministry of Health’s policies to contain and fight the disease. We also wondered whether the Nobel awards could put an end to the polemics concerning the viral origin of AIDS with particular reference to the theses (often referred to as ‘AIDS denialism’) put forward by Prof. Duesberg et al. and Bauer. AIDS denialism refers to the views of a loosely connected group of individuals and organizations who deny that HIV is the cause of AIDS. To this end, a young student (MPG) preparing his bachelor’s thesis began to search the official documents of the Italian Ministry of Health (http://www.ministerosalute.it) and, after a thorough search, we came to a rather paradoxical conclusion: policies, guidelines, definitions and data provided for by the Italian Ministry of Health are indeed consistent with the hypothesis that AIDS could be independent of HIV infection.”
The authors go on to state: “according to the Ministry, AIDS can be diagnosed in the absence of signs of HIV infection; there is legal prohibition to communicate new HIV infections to referring physicians and Health Authorities as if HIV spread were not a threat to public health… no national registry of HIV infection is implemented; and AIDS is not classified among relevant infective diseases nor among infective diseases that are susceptible of control interventions; one fourth of pediatric AIDS cases is not imputable to mother–son transmission.”


The study was conducted by Ruggiero et al. from the University of Firenze and published in the journal Medical Hypotheses. The authors examine their observations regarding what appear to be AIDS Denialist policies. They express considerable surprise, stating that “At the end of what we thought would have been a routine essay, we were left with more questions and doubts than we expected: if the data and the definitions provided for by the Italian Ministry of Health are accurate and consistent, and assuming that the Ministry always uses the acronym ‘AIDS’ to indicate the same pathologic entity (in this life/death matter, sloppiness and/or confusion would not be tolerable), then we are forced to conclude that the Ministry is convinced that HIV is not the sole cause of AIDS in Italy. This hypothesis of ours is easily refutable by the Ministry by implementing the following points:


1. Clearly state in an official document with legal value, that no diagnosis of AIDS can be made without confirmed HIV infection, and withdraw the definitions listed in the circular No. 9 of 29th April, 1994

2. Enforce obligation of notification of new HIV infections to referring physicians and Health Authorities.

3. Establish a coherent national registry of new HIV infection.

4. Classify AIDS among relevant infective diseases that are susceptible of control interventions.

5. Give an explanation for those pediatric AIDS cases not imputable to mother–son transmission.

Until these measures are not implemented, logics force us to include the Italian Ministry of Health within the AIDS denialist community.”

If Ruggiero et al. are correct it would mean that Italy joins South Africa (1999-2008) and Gambia in the family of nations that have sponsored AIDS Denialism.

There are serious implications should the Italian Health Ministry not refute Ruggiero et al.’s hypothesis. AIDS Deniers could easily exploit the Italian Government’s missteps just as they did in South Africa. Watch for an emergence of pseudoscience, natural remedies, Vitamin cures, and other classic denialist escapades. AIDS Deniers could use the confusion to sue pharmaceutical companies, challenge HIV testing, and launch legal defenses for people who knowingly infect others with HIV. Hopefully Italy’s Health Ministry will openly reject AIDS Denial and clarify its position.

UPDATE 7/12/2009
AIDS Denialists are getting excited about the Ruggiero article. They smell the sausage simmering. Henry Bauer has taken time away from looking for Nessie and ranting about Joe Newton to post the Italian analysis. [By the way, I am nominating Henry Bauer to serve as a case example for the new psychiatric condition under consideration post-traumatic embitterment disorder where“People who feel they have been wronged by someone and are so bitter they can barely function other than to ruminate about their circumstances". Sorry Henry, but you have to just let it go!]

Henry Bauer states that a “remarkable coup has just transpired in publishing serious questions about HIV/AIDS in a mainstream journal.”


Now hold your water old fella.
Bauer is referring to Medical Hypotheses as a mainstream journal. For someone who has edited the Journal of Scientific Exploration, Mad Magazine would be considered mainstream science. Medical Hypotheses has been the home to articles by Peter Duesberg and the Perth Group. They also published the papers “Ejaculation as a treatment for nasal congestion in men is inconvenient, unreliable and potentially hazardous” and my personal favorite “The nature of navel fluff” by Georg Steinhauser [Thanks Nathan, again!]. I just have to share that abstract…

“Hard facts on a soft matter! In their popular scientific book (Leyner M, Goldberg B. Why do men have nipples – hundreds of questions you’d only ask a doctor after your third martini. New York: Three Rivers Press; 2005), Leyner and Goldberg raised the question why “some belly buttons collect so much lint”. They were, however, not able to come up with a satisfactory answer. The hypothesis presented herein says that abdominal hair is mainly responsible for the accumulation of navel lint, which, therefore, this is a typically male phenomenon. The abdominal hair collects fibers from cotton shirts and directs them into the navel where they are compacted to a felt-like matter. The most abundant individual mass of a piece of lint was found to be between 1.20 and 1.29 mg (n = 503). However, due to several much larger pieces, the average mass was 1.82 mg in this three year study. When the abdominal hair is shaved, no more lint is collected. Old T-shirts or dress shirts produce less navel fuzz than brand new T-shirts. Using elemental analysis, it could be shown that cotton lint contains a certain amount of foreign material, supposedly cutaneous scales, fat or proteins. Incidentally, lint might thus fulfill a cleaning function for the navel.”

Medical Hypotheses is regularly featured in Ben Goldacre's Bad Science as a crap journal. Henry Bauer holds the journal in high esteem, that says it all.

So let’s keep this in perspective. As a commenter has already said elsewhere, this was not exactly published in JAMA or The Lancet.

For the full article see Ruggiero M et al. Aids denialism at the ministry of health. Med Hypotheses (2009), doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2009.06.002
To request a copy of the article you may contact the corresponding author Stephania Pacini stefania.pacini@unifi.it