Hospital PR firm gives insufficient response to ICC Investigation
By Liam Scheff,
Altheal.org July, 2004

In January, 2004, I published “The House That AIDS Built.” The story dealt with medical abuse at Incarnation Children’s Center (ICC), a home for HIV positive children in New York City. The story exposed the practices of forced-drugging, drug trials without informed consent, and profound medical abuse. The story was picked up by several international papers, including the New York Post and the UK Guardian, the New York Press, the Associated Press and BBC TV, among others.

German journalist Torsten Engelbrecht read the story and formulated a series of questions for Columbia Presbyterian, the hospital which presides over ICC. He was answered by a PR firm. The answers were dishonest and unsatisfactory. What follows is a response to and a dissection of their answers using NIH documents, clinical trials, interview material, Medline articles and Department of Health statistics. Given the material provided here, it is clear that the practice of surgical forced-drugging of HIV positive children with toxic compounds is ongoing, in violation of the rights of wards of the state, and must be addressed immediately.

The format is as follows:

Q: First, Torsten Engelbrecht’s (the German journalist) questions (Q).
A: Then the PR group’s answer (A).
Response: Then my response (Response).

The questions, in order:

Q1: Did all the trials use health outcomes as clinical endpoints, or surrogate markers?

Q2: Did any of the trials have a placebo group?

Q3: Are there already any results available? If not, when will they be available?

Q4: How many children have been used/took part in these trials?

Q5: From how many children’s parents (total number + percentage rate) did you have permission to use the children in these trials?

Q6: How young was the youngest child, how old the oldest one?

Q7: Is it true that, as I read, some “children who continue to resist taking drugs”, were taken to Columbia Presbyterian hospital where a surgeon puts a plastic tube through their abdominal wall into their stomachs?

Q8: How many children died during these trials and when (year)?

Q9: How old were the children? How did they die (from what cause)?

Q10: Were any of the children in the trials harmed by these antiretroviral drugs?

Q11: Who evaluated the trials (who evaluated whether children were harmed?) (were any independent?)

Q12: Is it true that combinations of up to 6 aids drugs were used in these trials? If no, what else is true?

Q13: Is it true that these experiments were at least in part funded by pharmaceutical enterprises? If yes or no, who funded these trials?

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