[Dean's World] Aziz P: dumb question

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Posted by Aziz P:
dumb question
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1152718509.shtml


   I was reading the fascinating debate at BMJ's Rapid Responses (hat tip
   to Sandi) and came across the following suggestion by a layman, Carl
   Williams:

     As I understand it the so-called âdissidentâ theories of what HIV
     is, or isnât, are varied on this point, but there appears to be one
     clear distinction between dissident and orthodox theories, and that
     is that all dissident theories assume that HIV is not a new
     exogenous retrovirus. Therefore HIV, or at least a positive HIV
     antibody test, or PCR amplification of âgagâ, âenvâ and âpolâ
     sequences should in principle have been present in much earlier
     blood sera.

     My lack of a scientific education may let me down at this point as
     I donât know how practically possible this may be to accomplish,
     but I would suggest that researchers examine stored blood samples
     from all over the world, from as far back as possible (from people
     who were in varying degrees of health) and test those samples using
     the modern test kits that according to Tony Floyd are 100%
     sensitive and specific (or at least approaching that degree of
     accuracy), to see what happens. Of course such testing should be
     totally blinded with the use of modern day control samples so that
     no claims can be made that assumptions are built into the outcomes.
     If there prove to be no positive results from these older samples,
     then surely the theory that HIV is anything but new would be
     disproved and conversely if there were positive results then
     perhaps we should look into why this so and how this effects our
     understanding of the role of HIV in modern day disease progression.

   Now that's just brilliant. But here's my own dumb question: If the
   HIV-skeptics believe that HIV is an old virus that does no harm, why
   don't normal people with good health (like myself) have it too? In
   other words, why don't healthy people test positive?