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A controversial television documentary screened in Britain last year
which claimed HIV was not the cause of AIDS made people with HIV give up
their medication, according to a survey carried out by a London clinic.
The survey indicates that as many as one in five HIV-positive viewers may
have stopped taking zidovudine (AZT) as a result of the programme. Zidovudine
is the only drug with a proven ability to slow the progress of HIV infection.

‘The AIDS Catch’, screened as part of the Dispatches series, caused
a furore when it was shown on Channel 4 last June (This Week, 16 June 1990).
It claimed that AIDS is not caused by an infectious agent, but by ‘lifestyle
factors’, such as repeated use of intravenous drugs and malnutrition. The
claims were largely based on the views of Peter Duesberg, a biologist at
the University of California, Berkeley. Å®ÉúСÊÓƵs attacked the programme
for being misleading and the Department of Health said that it contained
statements based on ‘a misunderstanding about the nature of AIDS’.

Some of the main criticisms concerned the programme’s portrayal of zidovudine.
The programme said there is ‘no scientifically credible evidence’ that the
drug benefits patients and that it even causes AIDS-like symptoms itself.
The programme also claimed that no one had survived on the drug for longer
than three years. It failed to point out, however, that widespread use of
zido vudine had begun only three years earlier. ‘It was a lousy programme
which gave a misleading account of zidovudine as a treatment,’ says Julian
Meldrum of the National AIDS Trust in London. He says there are many unanswered
questions about the drug, but ‘the fact that it prolongs lives is undeniable’.

Two months before the screening, a major report on zidovudine, not mentioned
in the programme, concluded that the drug is ‘safe and effective’ in people
with HIV who have yet to develop AIDS symptoms. Clinicians are still debating
exactly how effective the drug is, but most agree that it offers some benefit
to people with the virus.

Brian Gazzard of Westminster Hospital in London, one of the doctors
behind the study of patients’ responses to the documentary, says the survey
demonstrates ‘the need for great caution in deciding whether or not a TV
programme (of this kind) should be made’. Gazzard and his colleagues questioned
60 men with HIV attending St Stephen’s Clinic in London. Of the 27 men who
saw ‘The AIDS Catch’, a third said it had influenced their attitude to zidovudine;
six suspended their treatment permanently and three temporarily. Those not
taking zidovudine said that, having seen the programme, they were now less
likely to begin.

Gazzard believes the results are representative of the general response
to the programme by HIV-positive gay men, who account for nearly 70 per
cent of AIDS cases in Britain.

Other doctors, however, have expressed caution. According to Ian Williams
of the University College and Middlesex School of Medicine in London, it
may be unsafe to draw firm conclusions because of the study’s small sample
size and the difficulty in unravelling all the factors that might influence
a patient’s decision about treatment.

The programme supported Duesberg’s claim that HIV does not cause AIDS
by citing the low incidence of AIDS among heterosexuals in the West and
the fact that some people have carried HIV for up to 10 years without illness.
These were signs, it claimed, that the disease was not infectious.

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission has completed, but not yet published,
its review of the programme following complaints by three British AIDS charities
and Wellcome, the manufacturer of zidovudine. The commission is believed
to have upheld the complaints. But Joan Shenton, the programme’s producer
at Meditel, said several points are still unresolved. ‘There is the possibility
of going for a judicial review. I refute the commission’s interim findings
totally.’ Channel 4 declined to comment until the findings are published.