AIDS Statistics and the Business of Fearmongering

This is from a time when meals were taken at home and bowels were emptied in the fields, long before "Sheila ki Jawani" or "Munni ki Badnami"—neither had even been born back then. In those days, two brothers, Babban and Daddan, set out one day on a bicycle carrying a sack of harad (chebulic myrobalan) to sell. The entire day slipped by, yet not even a single paseri (traditional measure of five seers) of harad was sold.
As night approached, the two brothers kneaded sattu (roasted gram flour) to fill their bellies, when suddenly the Mentos lightbulb flashed in Babban’s brain. He climbed up a tree and began shouting:

A wind has blown, all shall perish!
Eat harad, and attain immortality!

The next day, all the harad was snapped up instantly.
This was the very first experiment in the economics of #fear in this Aryavarta (the land of the noble) that is instructed in *mā bhayam* (fear not).
Foreign corporations have been plundering us for years on this exact premise.
(Here we intend no disrespect to harad, but are merely illustrating an experiment in economics. As for harad—यस्य गृहे माता नास्ति तस्य माता हरीतकी ["He who has no mother at home has Haritaki as his mother"]. Victory to Mother Harad!)

The 'economics of fear' has not remained confined to iodized salt alone. "AIDS" too is a triumph of foreign design in spreading panic and terror among the populace. That the affliction spreads through illicit sexual relations is being propagandized with immense ferocity. The World Bank and foreign financial institutions are lavishly providing funds, the lion’s share of which is pouring into the coffers of these condom manufacturers—most of which are foreign.

The Government of India established the National AIDS Control Organisation, which commenced operations in 1992, and its first survey concluded in 1999. The second phase is now about to begin—for which the World Bank has extended a loan of 900 crore rupees—with the total expenditure of the survey amounting to 1200 crore. According to a sample survey (spanning the period from 1986 to 1999), over the thirteen-year enumeration, 35 lakh individuals were found to be HIV-positive, and among them, 9507 were diagnosed as AIDS patients. A report in *The New York Times* dated 20 July 2000 explicitly stated that the Export-Import Bank of the United States was prepared to provide one billion dollars annually to North African countries, on the condition that those nations purchase antiretroviral drugs manufactured exclusively by American corporations.

Recently, an extremely important piece of news regarding AIDS was ignored across the country, even though this news has raised serious questions about the entire AIDS propaganda campaign—questions to which neither the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) nor the Government of India has any answers. NACO announced that the number of HIV-positive individuals in India has plummeted sharply. This announcement was endorsed by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization as well.

It is noteworthy that in June 2006, NACO published a report claiming that in 2005, the number of people afflicted with AIDS in India exceeded 52 lakh, which was the highest in the world. India thus grabbed global headlines as a country where AIDS was raging like an epidemic. Remarkably, UNAIDS also endorsed this figure, despite possessing no scientific basis for it. Other international bodies such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the World Bank likewise set their seal of approval on it, claiming that this figure was scientifically sound. All this uproar transpired while Peter Piot, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, was touring India. Three days later, he arrived in Assam and, addressing a press conference in Guwahati, stated: “We simply cannot believe that AIDS cases in India have risen by only 35 thousand this year compared to last year, when Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are completely in the grip of AIDS.” Barely two weeks later, UNAIDS published its report asserting that not 52 lakh, but 57 lakh people in India were infected with AIDS—meaning India had surpassed even South Africa in AIDS cases. UNAIDS contended in its report that because NACO had excluded children and the elderly, the figure had been underestimated.

At that very time, Shri Purushottam Mulloli, president of JAC, an NGO based in Kannur district of Kerala, along with his colleague Anju Singh, openly challenged NACO and denounced its figures as spurious. They also contested the claim made by UNAIDS that 4 lakh people had died of AIDS in India. For several years, Shri Mulloli has been waging a long battle on the strength of scientific arguments against the disinformation peddled around AIDS. In the cases of Manipur, Assam, Haryana, and Rajasthan, he gave NACO a run for its money, forcing it to retract and alter its reports. At that time, celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and Nafisa Ali, along with thousands of NGOs, were parading the standard of AIDS hysteria, thoroughly unwilling to hear the truth. Even then, I had raised this issue forcefully in my column, asserting that the phantom being conjured around AIDS or HIV-positive status was nothing more than an overblown balloon.

10 years ago, in the Australian city of Perth, 1000 doctors, scientists, and several Nobel laureates gathered from around the world to challenge the fraudulent propaganda being propagated globally regarding AIDS. They are known as the Perth Group. To this day, UNAIDS has not mustered the nerve to answer their challenge. In the report NACO published this year, it claimed a 60 percent decline in the number of AIDS patients in India. In its defence, NACO stated that while last year it based its estimates on 700 surveillance centres, this year it conducted its assessment through 1200 surveillance centres. There could hardly be a more brazen fraud and mockery of the public. NACO claims that within a single year, 30 lakh people became AIDS-free. How is this possible? Did these people die, or were they cured through medical treatment? They did not die, for no such mortality data exists; nor were they cured, for hospitals possess no record of any such cure. Did AIDS, widely branded as "fatal", pack up and flee the country on its own?

In reality, what happened is that the figure of 57 lakh AIDS sufferers in India published by NACO and UNAIDS in 2006 was an outright deception. For had so many people contracted AIDS, lakhs of individuals would have perished from it by now. People did not die because they never had AIDS in the first place, and NACO has now brought forth this fresh figure merely to paper over its own machinations.

In a country where 80 percent of illnesses stem from the unavailability of clean drinking water, rather than attending to the water crisis, a monumental fraud is being perpetrated against the public by orchestrating the farce of a misleading, imported, foreign, and scientifically baseless disease like AIDS. Every conscientious citizen ought to raise their voice against this.

Shun Condoms, Adopt Natural Family Planning

Condoms, no doubt, appear advantageous to you hedonists. They assist in shielding you from the perils of sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies. Yet excessive reliance on them can prove injurious to your health as well.

1) Latex allergy – Most condoms are manufactured from latex, a fluid derived from the rubber tree. According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, allergic symptoms have been observed in certain individuals owing to proteins present in rubber. Symptoms of latex allergy include sneezing, rhinorrhoea, urticaria, pruritus, wheezing, inflammation, and dizziness. In several instances, latex allergy can pose a risk of anaphylaxis. Such individuals should therefore resort to synthetic condoms.

2) Risk of sexually transmitted infections – While condoms certainly assist in diminishing the risk of HIV and other afflictions such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and HPV, the danger of sexually transmitted diseases remains. This is because they fail to shield the surrounding skin, leaving an ongoing hazard of irritation and infection. According to the American Social Health Association, condoms can lower the risk of genital herpes, but they cannot safeguard every patch of skin, thereby leaving the threat of sexually transmitted infections intact.

3) Pregnancy risk – While correct usage of condoms provides 98 percent protection, improper application leaves 15 out of 100 women exposed to the risk of pregnancy. Its proper usage is therefore imperative. Expired condoms must never be used under any circumstances.

4) Health hazard to the partner – Two doctors in Dallas, Texas, claim that male condoms can induce cancer in women. According to them, powders and lubricants are applied to condoms. Numerous studies indicate that powders heighten the risk of ovarian cancer, and fibrosis on the fallopian tubes can render a woman sterile. According to the *Journal of the American Medical Association*, the US Food and Drug Administration prohibited powdered surgical gloves in view of these hazards, yet in the case of condoms, the practice persists.

Dr. Madhusudan Upadhyay Lucknow AIDS Day 2017