WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1810/97 by Ernesto CACCAVALE to the Commission. AIDS controversy (SUPPLEMENTARY ANSWER)
Date: 1997-05-28
Institutions: CACCAVALE, European Parliament
Subjects: AIDS, action programme, disease prevention, dissemination of information, documentation, medical research, public awareness campaign, public health

C 82/16

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

17. 3. 98

(98/C 82/22)

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 ((cid:146)AIDS › La grande truffa(cid:146) (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 (cid:145)impossible(cid:146) 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 (1), 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.

(1)  OJ L 95, 16.4.1996.