HIV is becoming a genetic frenzy.

Genes are keys to testing and drug choices, therapy approach [1,2, 3] and protection. And while genes continue to be the saving grace and only hope of the HIV-infected in the US, those in Africa are catching the short end of the genetic stick.

Sure, it may seem odd just why it is that, though the drugs in the US are supposed to make HIV evolve faster, it is Africa where HIV is said to be evolving into newer, deadlier strains (New York Newsday, January 20, 1998). Strange how easy it is to suggest evil things are brewing in Africa.

Now HIV is all about genes, all about biotechnology. The medical-industrial complex is directing its full energies to turn HIV into a matter for the most high-tech labs, the most expensive equipment. All this moves discussion of the disease out of the realm of the public, where all that we can do is hope that we have the right mutation to protect us.

Not only is HIV mutating in Africa (watch for new stories of a pending heterosexual epidemic in the US when the mutation "invades"), but HIV also has genes that shield it from attack by the immune system (New York Newsday, January 22, 1998). One can only wonder how to explain the thousands of cases of individuals who have effective antibodies against HIV. Apparently HIV occasionally loses its cloaking device.

The reduction of HIV pathogenicity and protection from its effects to genetic matters is simply a means of taking our fate out of our own hands and putting it into the hands of those who stand to profit off of bioengineering, namely designers of genetic therapies. As long as genes are big bucks, we will be told they are key to understanding AIDS. And those who are sick will continue to die, because poor resistance to disease is not primarily caused by any genes, and AIDS not at all caused by any HIV.