This is an excerpt from Matt Irwin's Excellent Book on AIDS and Voodoo .

A LIKELY EXPLANATION FOR THE "COURSE" OF AIDS

Based partly on this evidence, a compelling argument can be made that much of what we call AIDS is a self-fulfilling prophecy which might happen as follows:

a) The severe, acute psychological stress of being diagnosed "HIV Positive" is quickly transformed into a severe, chronic psychological stress of living with a prediction of a horrifying decline that could start at any time. This causes a suppression of the immune system, with selective depletion of CD4 T-cells as documented in the main section of this book. In addition, people are more likely to be tested for HIV when there is already some health problem present, so that the psychological stress adds to significant stress due to the illness already present. These illnesses are often severe and chronic in nature. It is not necessary, however, for prior illness to be present. These factors have been studied in healthy people where they create the very same immunosuppression and immune dysregulation that may later be called "AIDS".
b) After testing positive, people are often put on a variety of powerful medications as a preventative measure and/or for treatment of actual infections. These include long-term regimens of the most potent broad-spectrum antibiotics, as well as "antiretroviral" agents like AZT, ddI, ddC, and protease inhibitors. Although the toxicities of the "antiretrovirals" have been outlined above, antibiotics also often have debilitating side effects which are easily blamed on HIV, including immune suppression. Perhaps more significantly, they lead to a complete disruption of the normal microbial flora present in the gastrointestinal system. The healthy balance of flora in the gastrointestinal tract and elsewhere in the body is one of the most important protectors against infection (8). If this is not enough, these antibiotics also often lead to the development of multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, which can later ravage a person's system, especially if their immune system is not functioning very well.
c) Once the immune system starts to crack under the strain of the emotional stress, previous health problems (if there were any), and disrupted natural defenses, the diagnosis of AIDS is made. If not already on "antiretrovirals", then the person will now definitely be started on them, with all of the toxic effects described above.
d) The new "cocktails" are to be given until the patient dies, with no exceptions, if possible. This is because of the theory that mutant, drug resistant, HIV will flourish if they go off of their treatment. Patients who abandon "antiretroviral" treatment would then, theoretically, be a public health threat because they might infect others with their superpowerful, mutated "HIV". Thus, aside from considering their own health, the patient has a larger social responsibility to stay on the "cocktail", no matter how debilitating the "side effects" are. It is heavily stressed that the patient must not miss a single dose, if at all possible. When the patient's health begins to fail, the failure is blamed on the effects of this "mutated HIV", possibly due to the patients poor compliance. Rarely are the drug toxicities and complications caused by the treatment held responsible.

Some people seem to respond well (at least temporarily) to these "antiretroviral" regimens. The reasons for this are unclear, but may be related to:

1) Direct actions of the drugs on many possible pathogens including, possibly, HIV.

2) Toxic substances have been observed to stimulate the release of T cells from the bone marrow, before eventually exhausting the supply and causing immune cell depletion and anemia. The initial rise in CD4 counts seen in this case would be interpreted as improved immune function when it is actually the beginning of immune exhaustion.
3) Relief of the severe psychological stress due to the powerful belief that these drugs are "life-saving". This is often reinforced by rising CD4 counts and falling "viral load", which are doubtful and non-specific markers of actual health.

Scientific studies attempting to document positive effects of protease inhibitor (PI) "cocktails" are of questionable value. Every one has been stopped early, like stopping a sporting event when the home team is ahead. This skews any attempt at finding benefit. Even worse, all of the studies of protease inhibitor combination therapy have been stopped before statistically significant reductions in mortality is even reached (1). In addition, the control groups' "placebos" were 2 antiretroviral drugs with no protease inhibitor. If the "antiretrovirals" are part of the problem then these so-called "placebo controlled" trials will not reveal it very well. Stopping the trials early was also the case with AZT monotherapy, until the Concorde study finally went to completion and found greater deaths and "adverse events" in the group that got AZT as a preventative measure. The other group, in which people were only given AZT after being diagnosed with an AIDS-defining condition, had about 25% fewer deaths. Of the 172 Concorde participants who died all but 3 were on AZT at some point. (For more discussion of the Concorde see appendix (1)(9)(10)

The idea that mutated strains of HIV are capable of causing health problems has been completely disproven by the work of David Rasnick, who published his results in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. (11). Thus, the decline seen in most patients is NOT due to "mutated HIV". A much more simple answer is that the combined effects described above finally take over completely, and often irrevocably.