Poor children in US forced to take experimental drugs for AIDS

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What follows is an extended excerpt from the complete article " The House

That AIDS Built, " by journalist Liam Scheff.

 

This article deals with pharmaceutical abuse in a children's home in NYC.

This is a most controversial story - however, it's entirely based in fact

and good reporting. I hope you'll find it as compelling and shocking as I

did investigating it.

 

The complete article needs a home in a printed publication. If you run or

are associated with a brave, honest journal which reaches a reasonably wide

audience and has an active, solid web-base, please contact me at

liamscheff

 

The House That AIDS Built

 

[excerpt]

 

By Liam Scheff

 

Introduction:

 

In New York's Washington Heights is a 4-story brick building called

Incarnation Children's Center (ICC). This former convent houses a revolving

stable of children who've been removed from their own homes by the Agency

for Child Services. These children are black, Hispanic and poor. Many of

their mothers had a history of drug abuse and have died. Once taken into

ICC, the children become subjects of drug trials sponsored by NIAID

(National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease, a division of the

NIH), NICHD (the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

in conjunction with some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies -

GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Genentech, Chiron/Biocine and others.

 

The drugs being given to the children are toxic - they're known to cause

genetic mutation, organ failure, bone marrow death, bodily deformations,

brain damage and fatal skin disorders. If the children refuse the drugs,

they're held down and have them force fed. If the children continue to

resist, they're taken to Columbia Presbyterian hospital where a surgeon puts

a plastic tube through their abdominal wall into their stomachs. From then

on, the drugs are injected directly into their intestines.

 

In 2003, two children, ages 6 and 12, had debilitating strokes due to drug

toxicities. The 6-year-old went blind. They both died shortly after. Another

14-year old died recently. An 8-year-old boy had two plastic surgeries to

remove large, fatty, drug-induced lumps from his neck.

 

This isn't science fiction. This is AIDS research. The children at ICC were

born to mothers who tested HIV positive, or who themselves tested positive.

However, neither parents nor children were told a crucial fact -- HIV tests

are extremely inaccurate.(1,2) The HIV test cross-reacts with nearly seventy

commonly-occurring conditions, giving false positive results. These

conditions include common colds, herpes, hepatitis, tuberculosis, drug

abuse, inoculations and most troublingly, current and prior

pregnancy.(3,4,5) This is a double inaccuracy, because the factors that

cause false positives in pregnant mothers can be passed to their children -

who are given the same false diagnosis.

 

Most of us have never heard this before. It's undoubtedly the biggest secret

in medicine. However, it's well known among HIV researchers that HIV tests

are extremely inaccurate - but the researchers don't tell the doctors, and

they certainly don't tell the children at ICC, who serve as test animals for

the next generation of AIDS drugs. ICC is run by Columbia University's

Presbyterian Hospital in affiliation with Catholic Home Charities through

the Archdiocese of New York.

 

Sean and Dana Newberg are two children from ICC. Their mother used drugs and

was unable to care for them properly, so they were raised in foster care,

until their great-aunt Mona adopted them. Mona Newberg is a teacher in the

New York Public Schools, and has her Master's degree in Education. She

adopted the children when Sean was three and Dana was six. She was already

raising their older brother, who was never given an HIV test or AIDS drugs.

He's now grown, healthy and serving in the Navy.

 

Their mother used heroin and crack cocaine since she was a teenager. She was

given an HIV test in the late 80s and tested positive. " She had three

children before Sean and Dana, " said Mona. " Nobody told us that the test

cross-reacted with drug abuse, let alone pregnancy. It's not a valid test. "

 

Because of the test result, the doctors at Columbia Presbyterian put Sean on

AZT monotherapy when he was 5 months old. Use of AZT monotherapy is now

considered malpractice because it can cause debilitating, fatal illness

including fatal anemia.

 

Sean has been on life support twice as a result of the AIDS drug Nevirapine.

Dana was put on AIDS drugs in 2002, even though she wasn't sick. Since being

put on the drugs, Dana has developed cancer.

 

Both children have been taken into ICC and kept there against their will and

against Mona's wishes for one reason - Mona has questioned the safety of the

AIDS drugs AZT, Nevirapine and Kaletra and stopped giving the drugs when

they made the children ill. In the summer and fall of 2003, I visited Mona,

Sean, Dana and ICC. I spoke with Mona about her experience and her decision.

 

Liam Scheff: What led you to question the safety of the drugs? Mona Newberg:

When I first got Sean at three years old, he was a vegetable. He'd never

eaten solid food. He had a feeding tube that went through his nose into his

stomach. AIDS medications change the taste buds. AZT, especially, makes it

so kids can't stand the taste of food and won't eat. The nurses fed Sean

AZT, Bactrim and six cans of Pediasure a day through this tube, which stayed

in his stomach for over two years. Nobody ever bothered to change it.

 

When I got Sean, I continued to give him the drugs as prescribed for about 5

months. But after each spoonful, he got weaker. I thought, wait a minute -

this stuff is supposed to be making him better, why is he getting worse?

 

[Mona eventually decided to take Sean off the drugs, and found that his

health improved gradually but steadily. The Agency for Child Services didn't

approve of her choice - to refuse AZT for Sean, even though it made him ill,

and signed him up with a doctor at Beth Israel].

 

Mona: An ACS worker came to my door, and told me I had to register the kids

with an infectious disease doctor - Dr. Howard at Beth Israel. I was taking

Sean and Dana to a Naturopathic MD, and they were both healthy and strong. I

told them that we had a doctor. They said, " Too bad, you have to see Dr.

Howard now. "

 

Howard was terrible for the children. He ignored the only thing that

actually bothered Sean - his lung condition, and insisted that he go on a

new drug for HIV. He said, " There's a new miracle drug. It just came on the

market. I guarantee if you give it to Sean, you'll watch the miracle

happen " .

 

LS: What was the miracle drug?

 

Mona: Nevirapine. Howard put Sean on Nevirapine. Sean's health immediately

deteriorated. He got sicker, his lungs congested, he lost weight, his

cheekbones sunk, his liver and spleen started to go. Six months after he

went on Nevirapine, he had complete organ failure. He was on life support

for two weeks at Beth Israel Hospital. Then I did some research on

Nevirapine, and found out that it caused organ failure and death. When Sean

finally got out of the hospital, Howard discharged him on hospice care. Six

months earlier, he was healthy. Now they were telling me to prepare for his

death.

 

[Mona was able to get Sean out of the hospital and bring him home. She

stopped giving the Nevirapine, and Sean gradually improved. She was then

approached by an ACS worker to put Sean into ICC.]

 

The ACS worker told me I should put Sean into Incarnation Children's Center

until he was stronger. They told me that ICC was this wonderful place. They

said in four months he'd be strong enough to come back home. ICC took Sean

off the Nevirapine and put him on Viracept, Epivir, Zerit and Bactrim. Sean

improved off the Nevirapine, but the new drugs definitely made him sick -

just not as badly. He had trouble walking, and his arms and legs got even

thinner.

 

I visited Sean at ICC for five months. Then, when I wanted to bring him

home, they said, " We donÕt recommend that Sean leave here. You have a

reputation for not giving meds. "

 

LS: ICC refused to let Sean come home?

 

Mona: Right. They kept him for a year and a half. I had to get a lawyer to

get him out.

 

LS: What was it like for Sean at ICC?

 

Mona: There were children in wheelchairs, on crutches, with deformations.

There were AZT babies. Their heads have a different shape, with the eyes

spaced wide and sunken in. The drugs cause severe developmental problems.

Many children have misshapen, weak limbs and distended bellies. Many are

learning disabled. The kids at ICC are constantly medicated with all kinds

of drugs. When children refuse the drugs the nurses hold them down and force

feed them. Sean wanted to get the hell out of there.

 

During my visits I noticed that many children at ICC were walking around

with tubes hanging from their undershirts, and I wondered what they were.

Then one day, I saw the nurse come in with a whole tray of medications and

syringes, and I watched her inject this medication into the tubes coming out

of their stomachs. I couldn't believe it. I thought, my god, what's going on

here?

 

Every child who had a stomach tube took their medication that way, from the

three-year-olds to the teenagers. It horrified me. I couldn't understand it.

When I found out what was being done, I thought, surely this must be

illegal. There's no way they could be doing this legally.

 

I expressed my concerns to Sean's ACS case worker. I said, " Do you know what

they're doing to those kids in there? This reminds me of Nazi Germany. " He

said, " They're doing wonderful things for these children. " I called Albany,

the state capital, and talked to [name withheld] at the State Department of

Health's AIDS Institute. He said, " What are we going to do if these little

children refuse to take the medication? How are we going to save their lives

if we don't perform this operation? "

 

LS: Who performs this operation?

 

Mona: The children are sent to Columbia-Presbyterian for the operation. The

surgeons there do it.

 

[Mona described the children who've died at ICC. Two children, ages six and

twelve, had strokes from drug toxicity. One went blind, and they both died

shortly after. Amir, a nine-year-old, has had repeated operations to remove

fatty lumps from his neck and back. The fist-sized lumps (lipodystrophy) are

caused by AIDS drugs called protease inhibitors. " The children at ICC who

don't have the tubes tend to be a whole lot healthier and live a whole lot

longer than the ones with the tubes, " Mona said].

 

LS: ICC is part of a national program running AIDS drug trials. Have you

ever signed a waiver permitting them to use your children in a drug trial?

 

Mona: No, never. But ACS has signed for me when I didn't want to give Sean

drugs. When I said, " No, " the ACS case worker grabbed the form and said,

" I'll sign it. You don't need to. " They're always switching medications -

they never ask me if it's okay.

 

Right now, most of the kids at ICC are on Kaletra. Kaletra was on fast-track

approval. It was released before testing was complete. But they do know

something about Kaletra. It causes cancer. It says on the label, that this

drug causes cancer in test animals.

 

I fought for a year to get Sean home. ICC wanted to put him in a foster home

where someone would be paid to feed him the drugs every day. I got a lawyer

and we finally got Sean out of there. My lawyer was able to get Sean's ICC

medical records. He told me, " Sean was tortured at Incarnation. He was

tortured. "