By Liam Scheff

WHEN CHRISTINE MAGGIORE TESTED HIV-POSITIVE IN 1992, HER DOCTOR TOLD HER TO GET READY TO DIE. BUT SHE WASN'T INTERESTED IN DYING.

Maggiore was told that the AIDS drugs would make her sick, so she skipped them, instead relying on natural methods to support her health. A year and a half later, she was so healthy that her doctor said there was something wrong and she should retest.

She did retest, several times. The tests came back negative, indeterminate and positive. Maggiore investigated the medical literature and learned that HIV tests are highly inaccurate. She also discovered that there are gaping flaws in the HIV hypothesis itself.

Believing that this is the sort of thing people should know, she founded Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, a resource for people who, like herself, want to make fully informed decisions about their health.

Since testing positive, Maggiore has had two children. Her kids, two and six years old, have never been tested. They've been raised on organic food, with a naturopathic approach to health. They're both intelligent and active. They don't take AIDS drugs. And they're not in the least bit sick. They regularly see their pediatrician, who has no medical complaints about their well-being.

And they're not alone. There are thousands of healthy HIV-positive people who don't take the drugs, who rely on natural regimens to support their immune function.

It was through Maggiore that I met Mona, whose children, Sean and Dana, have tested HIV-positive. By the state's definition, they're not actually her children; Mona is their great aunt and legal guardian. Her niece, a long-time drug user, was unable to act as a responsible mother, so Sean and Dana were remanded to state foster care. Mona took them back to raise as her own.

When I first spoke with Mona, she was stressed and nervous. Sean had twice been sent to the Incarnation Children's Center (ICC), a "home for HIV positive children" located in Washington Heights. First, as an infant, then again four years ago. And Dana was there until June.

"Why did they take her?" I asked.

"They said I was a negligent parent because I didn't want to give the drugs."

She’d been taking them to a naturopath, and the children were healthy, but it didn’t matter. When city agencies found out that the children weren't on the drugs, they took them away for mandatory treatment at a clinic and then transferred them to ICC. There, they were locked up and pumped full of drugs day and night.

"What drugs?"

"AZT, Nevirapine, Epivir, Zerit. All kinds of drugs."

To read through the list of drug studies either currently underway or recently concluded at IC—studies sponsored by government agencies such as National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and huge pharmaceutical companies such as Glaxo, Pfizer, Squibb and Genentech—is to take a trip through the nightmare world of pediatric drug research.

For example, the study called "The Effect of Anti-HIV Treatment on Body Characteristics of HIV-Infected Children" is looking for the causes of "Wasting and Lipodystrophy [fat redistribution]"—by using drugs known to cause wasting and lipodystrophy.

Or consider "The Safety and Effectiveness of Treating Advanced AIDS Patients between the Ages of 4 and 22 with Seven Drugs, Some at Higher than Usual Doses." The seven drugs in the study are all known to cause debilitating, potentially fatal side effects, yet they are administered at "higher than usual doses" in four-year-olds.

Then there's a study with "Stavudine…Alone or in Combination with Didanosine." Stavudine plus Didanosine has killed pregnant women.

Or the vaccine study to be administered to children "12 months to 8 years" using "live chicken pox virus," even though one of the consequences of a live virus vaccine can be the disease itself.

Another measures "HIV Levels in Cerebrospinal Fluid." Cerebrospinal fluid can only be gathered from a spinal tap, a dangerous and invasive procedure.

There's even a study on HIV-negative children born to HIV-infected mothers that uses an experimental HIV vaccine.

Mona was never informed that Sean had once participated in clinical trials at ICC.

"But they're always changing the children's medications," she said.

I asked Mona how the children tolerate so many medications.

A lot of them don't, she told me. "The ones that can't are drugged through a tube…in their stomachs. If a child refuses drugs too many times, they take them away for the operation. I've seen it happen to children who refuse the medication."