Headlines here, on radio and television, have been dominated by one subject when it comes to the AIDS debate. Microbicides. Thanks to an international conference that received unprecedented media attention, the nation is vastly better informed on the subject.

All those words, confined in yesteryear to obscure medical and science journals, repeated over and over again with never a blush. Gone are the days when the topic of sex in all its unmentionable detail was just not embalmed in ink and amplified over airwaves and the small screen.

It was HIV/AIDS archrebel Peter Duesberg who once expressed amazement at the situation where those united in the opinion that HIV does not cause AIDS were bogged down in arguing among themselves about what HIV is.

As even a brief visit to any web board where they congregate will show, the so-called dissidents have become their own worst enemy. Recently, I have been the target of vitriolic and spiteful comment on these web boards. Apparently what sparked this outpouring was the opinion I have often expressed in this column that the best thing for “dissentdom” would be to get into the laboratory and do some really good research.

A new year dawns — the seventh anniversary of my entry into the Great AIDS Debate — and the only thing I predict is more of the same. That means chipping away at the edifice of HIV dogma, but no funding for scientists with alternate ideas.

I have two simple wishes.

No 1: that the long-delayed research to establish the validity of HIV tests will be tackled. The only certainty at the moment is that I will not let the issue go, as I made clear when I phoned in to a nationwide radio talk show on World AIDS Day in December and spoke to our Minister of Health, who was the guest:

Not for the first time in my involvement in the Great AIDS Debate, I am embroiled in the “Letters to the Editor” pages here in South Africa with proponents of the premise that HIV causes AIDS.

The current exchange started on March 2 after a spokesperson for the official Opposition in our Parliament, the Democratic Alliance, wrote a eulogising letter on the pro-antiretroviral stance of it’s leader, Tony Leon.(1) I took up the challenge to produce evidence of ARV efficacy as well as references  to research establishing the link between HIV and AIDS.(2) Since then, there have been several letters from the DA’s health spokesperson and apologists. None produced references.