HEAL London

We're glad to see that Cheryl Cole is well on the way to recovery after her nasty bout of Malaria she apparently picked up in Tanzania. From HEAL London's undercover filming a local doctor in Uganda reported that when he was doing his internship, of the 100 children brought to the hospital each day with what was believed to be Malaria, only 40 would survive. So let's be clear: It certainly was no PR over-dramatisation of the truth on this occasion - she really was in danger.

One advantage she was likely to have over many native Africans though that may have assisted her recovery is that as well as access to the most expensive medical care, is that she at least had access to adequate nutrition on a long term basis. Whether she has actually been partaking of that opportunity sufficiently is not entirely known.

However, even when she is fully recovered the Malaria will leave behind a hidden legacy she would be well to pay heed as within there lurks a hidden danger.

‘Life-saving’ AIDS drug Zidovudine has now been added to the list of environmental toxins that needed to be monitored in case they show up in drinking water, because of its cancer-causing properties, according to the State of California’s Environmental Protection Agency. In their report dated 18^th December 2009, Zidovudine, still most widely known by its original abbreviated name AZT (Azidothymidine) was added to the list with no recognised maximum safe limit declared.

Why would the notion of AZT being in drinking water be a concern? How would it get there? The problem is that when a person takes any drug, quite often not all of it is broken down and utilised within the body, and some is passed out by the body in its original state. AZT even accumulates in semen, according to a Norwegian study, for instance.

This almost inevitably finds its way into the waste water supply which in an increasing number of places, ultimately gets processed into drinking water to some extent. The problem there is that the kind of processes used by water companies that were originally intended to deal with bacteria and other unclean elements, are not necessarily going to be effective against the increasing variety and quantity of pharmaceutical drugs that either get pissed, washed, or flushed into the waste water system.

One of the most listened-to and right-wing radio presenters in the US, Michael Savage, has hosted an astonishing segment by Robert Scott Bell exposing on national media in the US for quite possibly the first time, serious flaws in the HIV/AIDS paradigm. Michael Savage has described himself as being 'To the right of Rush [Limbaugh, another right-wing radio show host] and hit the headlines in June 2009 for being the first top US media personality to be banned from the UK, the first to be banned from any western nation according to his own webpage. He regularly gets between 8-10 million listeners a week and is in the top 3 or 4 most listened-to and widely-syndicated radio shows.

In what would be a shocking development to many, the lead researcher of the team awarded the Nobel prize for the alleged discovery of HIV, Dr Luc Montagnier, has said that nutrition, anti-oxidants and clean water are more important than AIDS drugs and vaccines. This should not be a surprise to those who keep their eyes and ears open as Montagnier has previously implied oxidative stress is a key mechanism in AIDS.