WRITTEN QUESTION E-1810/97 by Ernesto Caccavale (UPE) to the Commission (28 May 1997)

Subject: AIDS controversy

Many questions have been raised about AIDS by a scientific controversy involving more than 700 specialists from 23 countries including the greatest living retrovirologist, Peter Duesberg.

Extensive documentation has recently been published in Italy by the well-known sexologist Luigi De Marchi and the specialist in infectious diseases Fabio Franchi ('AIDS - La grande truffa' (the big fraud), SEAM, Rome, 1997). The publications highlight unjustified alarmism and numerous conflicting opinions of most Italian and international health authorities on the subject of AIDS.

The controversy questions the validity of major crucial aspects of the presentation and treatment of AIDS from discovery of the virus to definition of the illness, epidemiological prognoses, the uselessness of tests, the harmfulness of treatments and the search for an 'impossible' vaccine.

1. Is the Commission aware of these publications and the theories they expound?

2. If so, will it inform the European Parliament and other bodies of the importance of the documentation and the claims?

3. Does it not consider it advisable to appoint a multidisciplinary committee of inquiry (not confined to virologists and infectious disease specialists) to shed light on the numerous inconsistencies concerning this plague of the second millennium?

Additional answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission (12 September 1997)

1. The Commission is familiar with the arguments put forward in the publication referred to by the Honourable Member. Nevertheless, the Commission does not consider that the information campaigns carried out by the Italian health authorities have used an alarming and exaggerated tone.

2. On the other hand, the Commission considers that the level of knowledge acquired over recent years about AIDS in fields such as medicine, sociology, research, education and public health is higher than that for most other infectious diseases, judging by the wide-ranging literature published in international journals.

Also, differences of opinion among researchers and within the scientific world were much more pronounced during the first phase of the epidemic, when knowledge of AIDS was still limited, than they are now.

As a result, the Commission does not intend to inform Parliament or other bodies of the content of the publication referred to by the Honourable Member.

3. On the other hand, the Commission is encouraging the coordination of measures carried out under the Community research programme in the field of biomedicine and health with actions aimed at preventing infection by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and certain other communicable diseases, and the promotion of studies in the Member States to identify the most effective preventive methods and publish the most significant results of this work.

In particular, the Community action programme on the prevention of AIDS and certain other communicable diseases (Decision 647/96/EC), adopted by Parliament and the Council on 29 March 1996 ((OJ L 95, 16.4.1996. )), makes provision for actions aimed at the surveillance and monitoring of communicable diseases, combating transmission, providing information, education and training, and support for persons with HIV/AIDS and combating discrimination.