Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS is different from HIV, Human Immunodeficiency
Virus. The most common definition is that HIV is a virus that can lead to AIDS. AIDS is the most severe phase of HIV infection. With this info, it is obvious that there is no AIDS without HIV. In the video, many people all over the world don’t really know the difference between the two. When different people, those who have more knowledge about AIDS and HIV also seem to have different opinions and definitions of AIDS and HIV. Some say that AIDS is a syndrome, some say that it is a chronic disease, some might think that it is not a disease, it is a political definition and some say it is a categorization. According to Celia Farber, an Investigative Journalist, definitions change once in a while and whenever this happens, the numbers go up. In the film, Brent Leung, the film maker of this documentary, went to have an HIV test and discovered that a “diagnosis” of being seropositive of HIV depends more on the answers you provide about your daily life than any specific microbe in your blood. The woman who performed the test showed two test kits to Brent that will test if he is HIV positive or not. Yes, she says, there is a possibility that the test kits have different outcomes, that’s why there is the last kit, to know which is really true. But Brent was a little questioning about this because if the last kit is the most accurate, why not just use the last one? Her reason was really disturbing if you ask me. She said that “we need to use the first two ones because how will you know if the last one has a discrepancy?” so what she means is that “majority wins” between the results. What’s even more disturbing is that she says that they are not 100% sure of the outcome so you should visit other centers and verify your test there. What if you visit other centers and those other centers also have different outcomes? How will you know which to believe in? Therefore, this led Brent to a conclusion that the HIV epidemic might be widespread because of the inaccurate tests they perform. There were many witnesses that were interviewed that told Brent that had “glitches” in their HIV testing. One woman said that she went for a test in this one hospital and got an HIV positive result but in another hospital, she wasn’t diagnosed with HIV. Another woman said that the paper, containing the results that she was “HIV positive” said that it only indicates possible infection by virus and that positive results should be followed with additional testing whereas the test they used was a confirmatory test already. Therefore, the witnesses deemed that HIV tests are unreliable and inaccurate. How can we know if HIV or AIDS even exists if there is no accurate testing and we don’t really know who has this and who doesn’t? They went to the World Health Organization in Switzerland to know about the numbers of HIV and AIDS infected but what they found was shocking. There were no numbers. They were mere estimates. For me, the main points lie on the conversation of Brent and Dr. Montagnier. Dr. Montagnier points out that you can be exposed to AIDS without getting infected, a strong immune system can protect you against AIDS and with the help of good nutrition, you can fight off AIDS. This is why people in poorer regions are mainly those who “have” AIDS. Another woman, testified that there were a few of them who had AIDS and only 3 of them weren’t taking medication. After some time, every single one of them, except the 3 of them who didn’t take the medication died. Doctors found out that there are a lot of side effects in patients because of the drugs given to them some, severe life threatening cases. Somehow, the side effects outweigh the benefits. They admitted that they cannot give prescriptions that are for life because it is toxic. Some people even say that drugs make it worse and just decreases your time in life.