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ONE of the scientists who discovered AIDS will give evidence in the Supreme Court against self-professed experts who believe the disease does not exist.
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Professor Robert Gallo has agreed to provide video evidence to rebut claims by two Perth researchers, Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos and Dr Valendar Turner, that the HIV virus does not exist and cannot be sexually transmitted.
Professor Gallo will replace prominent scientist Professor Gustav Nossal as a key prosecution witness in an appeal by a former Port Pirie man, Andre Parenzee, 35, against his conviction for knowingly having unprotected sex while he was HIV-positive.
Prosecutor Sandi McDonald will tomorrow question Professor Gallo over his work in the 1980s which led to the identification of the HIV virus.
Professor Gallo and a French virologist, Dr Luc Montagnier, clashed when both claimed they had discovered the virus before finally agreeing in the late 1990s to share the credit.
The use of Professor Gallo as an expert witness is part of a concerted attempt by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to refute claims made by Mrs Papadopulos-Eleopulos and Dr Turner during earlier hearings.
The attack on the pair's credibility continued yesterday when a leading HIV physicist joined other experts in rejecting their controversial theory.
Associate Professor Elizabeth Dax told the Supreme Court there was no doubt in her mind that HIV existed.
An HIV researcher for 20 years, Professor Dax said it was "a travesty, quite frankly, to say it doesn't exist".
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