AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, and currently accounts for an estimated 80 percent of all American financial aid to world health and population issues.

Yet an increasing number are pointing to the enormity of this pandemic and asking questions: Does HIV cause AIDS? Should we give all our money to HIV / AIDS when diarrhea kills five times more children? Do AIDS drugs really work? Some even go so far as to deny the efficacy of the HIV / AIDS food chain and become known as Denialists.

Denialists are often scorned, ridiculed and shouted down in the popular press. Consider, for one example, the tone of this definition of Aids Denialism in Wikipedia:

Some individuals, including some scientists who are not recognized experts on HIV, question the connection between HIV and AIDS. Some question the procedures used to prove the existence of HIV. Others question the validity of current testing and treatment methods. These claims have been examined and rejected as having no validity.

Despite being shouted down time after time, the denialists keep denying. Roger England, of Health Systems Workshop, a Grenada-based think tank, wrote in the May 2008 edition of the British Medical Journal:

The global HIV industry is too big and out of control. We have created a monster with too many vested interests and reputations at stake too many relatively well paid HIV staff in affected countries, and too many rock stars with AIDS support as a fashion accessory.

Given the enormity of HIV / AIDS the number of lives at stake and the amount of money on the table the denialers pose an interesting question:

Should denialists be denied? (#615)