Part 2: Kansas Woman Takes on Test Makers

[Soroush Ebrahimi]

HIV Test Kit Makers Sued

From Health Supreme http://www.newmediaexplorer.org

The test kits used to determine "HIV positive" status in patients are deeply
flawed - they were developed on the basis of faulty scientific methodology
and assumptions and are without value in determining whether a person
suffers from "HIV/AIDS", alleges Kim Marie Bannon in a civil suit filed
under the Consumer Protection Act of the State of Kansas.

The legal action against the makers of AIDS test kits Calypte Biomedical
Corporation and Roche Diagnostics was filed on April 12, 2004 in the
Sedgwick County District Court by attorney Dennis Webb of Wichita, Kansas.

At the base of the suit is the scientific mishandling of the AIDS crisis
from the very beginning, when on April 23, 1984, then US Health Secretary
Margaret Heckler announced at a press conference that the "probable cause of
AIDS has been found.2 A controversy between alleged discoverers Robert Gallo
and Luc Montagnier distracted us from the fact that the virus thought to
cause immune deficiency had never been unequivocally isolated. Neither has
anyone explained in scientific terms how the virus, which cannot be found in
large numbers of immune deficient individuals, causes the illness.

Kim Marie Bannon, the courageous woman taking on the test manufacturers,
says:

3I've worked in the legal field in Wichita since 1983, and I feel it is only
my excellent reputation with the local bar that enabled me to get a lawyer
to take the case. Rest assured, I'm not looking for a settlement. I want
lots of publicity. I welcome anyone with media contacts to help me get my
story out. I plan to have the defendants so totally exposed that a
settlement and gag order would do them no good anyway.

3My lawsuit focuses on the narrow issue of the tests which will hopefully be
easier for a jury to understand than the multitude of issues that will
surely eventually be raised in the whole fiasco. It will provide a precedent
upon which other cases can be built in the future. And if they can't test
you, they can't diagnose you. Others can escape the terror that has been
perpetrated on me, as well as on so many of you.2

===

Excerpts from Ms Bannon9s filing provided to Alive & Well:

Kim Marie BANNON, Plaintiff
vs. CALYPTE BIOMEDICAL
CORPORATION; and ROCHE
DIAGNOSTICS CORPORATION,
Defendants

In April of 1992, during the course of routine medical diagnostic testing,
Bannon was 3diagnosed2 by Dr. Donna Sweet of the Kansas University School of
Medicine, Wichita, Kansas, as carrying the "Human Immunodeficiency Virus"
referred to as HIV, and widely purported to be the cause of Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS.

The testing procedure used to make such a 3diagnosis2 included the
"Recombigen EIA Screen-HIV-1 EIA" and the "Cambridge Biotech HIV-1 Western
Blot Kit," both manufactured by defendant CBC, which included a protocol for
administration of the test and criteria for assessing the results of said
kits.

Dr. Sweet described the results of the CBC testing as "indisputable" and
"classic," and told Bannon she would develop the full spectrum of AIDS
within five to seven years and die soon thereafter.

In subsequent testing from 1996 to 2003 undertaken at the direction of Dr.
Sweet, Bannon was administered an AMPLICOR HIV-1 Monitor Test Kit
manufactured by defendant Roche, which included a protocol and criteria for
assessing the results of said kits; all of said tests purportedly confirming
the diagnosis of HIV infection.

Likewise, the Roche testing was described by Sweet as confirmation of the
HIV diagnosis, and her prognosis of the full spectrum of AIDS and death
within five to seven years.

Plaintiff discovered on April 18, 2002 that the science, methodology, and
assumptions relied upon by defendants CBC and Roche as the basis for their
respective testing and basis for plaintiff's diagnosis was faulty, without
sound medical and/or scientific confirmation, and an otherwise flawed
procedure.

Now more than twelve years after the "diagnosis" provided by defendants
testing procedures, plaintiff is healthy, asymptomatic, and wholly free of
any sequela of HIV or AIDS.

CBC and Roche engaged in deceptive acts and practices [by] making
representations knowingly or with reason to know that the goods and/or
services included approvals, characteristics, uses and benefits which they
did not have; making representations knowingly or with reason to know that
the supplier had certain approval or status which it did not have; making
representations knowingly or with reason to know that the goods and/or
services were of a standard which was materially different from the
representation; making representations knowingly or with reason to know that
the goods and/or services had uses, benefits or characteristics which had
been substantiated when, in fact, they had no such benefits; the willful use
in oral or written representations of exaggeration, falsehoods, innuendo, or
ambiguity as to a material fact; and the willful failure to state a material
fact or the willful concealment, suppression or omission of a material fact.

Defendants CBC and Roche engaged in unconscionable acts and practices taking
advantage of the consumer's inability to protect her interests resulting
from an inability to understand the language of the relevant "agreement;"
making misleading statements of opinion on which plaintiff relied to her
detriment; and excluded or attempted to exclude the implied warranty of
fitness for a particular purpose, to wit: that the product or service was an
accurate measure for the diagnosis of HIV/AIDS.

As a consequence of the unlawful denials by CBC and Roche of the warranty
claims, plaintiff has incurred losses, including but not limited to: loss of
income.

WHEREFORE, plaintiffs pray for judgment as follows:
civil penalties of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) for each violation of
the KCPA against each of the defendants; injunctive relief prohibiting the
defendants from further representations asserting the suitability of the
subject test products/services; and pecuniary damages suffered as a
consequence of the misdiagnosis including loss of wage/earnings;
non-pecuniary damages including mental anguish, pain and suffering, shame
and humiliation resulting from the defendants' unlawful acts; attorney fees
pursuant to the Kansas Consumer Protection Act; together with their costs,
and such other and further relief as the Court shall deem just and
equitable.

For more information, contact Kim Marie Bannon at bannon@networksplus.net
316-461-2173 (US) mobile phone

===
--
Christine Maggiore, Founder/Director
Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives
http://www.aliveandwell.org
11684 Ventura Boulevard Studio City, CA 91604 USA
Tel 818/780-1875 National Toll-free 877/411-AIDS Fax 818/780-7093
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