Christine
Maggiore, an HIV-positive woman who does not believe that
HIV causes AIDS, appeared on Thursday evening's
broadcast of ABC TV's newsmagazine
Primetime to refute medical evidence that says
her 3-year-old daughter died earlier this year of
AIDS-related complications, the Los Angeles
Times reports. Maggiore, the founder of the HIV
denialist group Alive and Well AIDS Alternatives, had
never tested her daughter for HIV infection, and she
had taken no steps to prevent her child from acquiring
HIV, such as taking antiretroviral drugs during childbirth
or avoiding breast feeding her. A Los Angeles coroner
ruled earlier this year that the child died of
AIDS-related pneumonia.
Maggiore is being
investigated for possible child endangerment following
her daughter's death and has tested her 8-year-old
son for HIV antibodies; he has tested negative three
times since his sister's death. Los Angeles
police are continuing an investigation into possible
criminal charges against Maggiore and her husband. The
medical board of California also is investigating the
care provided to Maggiore's daughter by three
physicians in the weeks prior to her death to determine if
they had failed to give the child proper care.
Maggiore said
during the Primetime interview that her
daughter's death has not changed her opinion that HIV
does not cause AIDS and says an independent review of
her daughter's medical records suggests she
died not of AIDS-related pneumonia but of a severe
allergic reaction to an antibiotic medication she had been
taking for an ear infection. But the Times
reports that the toxicologist Maggiore hired to review
her daughter's case, Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati, is
a member of the advisory board for her denialist group and
is the author of the book Get All the Facts: HIV
Does Not Cause AIDS. He also did not perform an
autopsy on Maggiore's daughter or review slides
prepared by the coroner but based all his conclusions
only on the child's medical records, according to the Times.
The newspaper
asked Harry Vinters, chief of neuropathology at the
University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, to
review both the coroner's report and
Al-Bayati's report, and he says he believes the
coroner's conclusion that Maggiore's daughter
died of AIDS-related pneumonia is accurate. He also
told the Times that Al-Bayati's report
"probably is incomplete." (Advocate.com)