The Perth Group is a group of HIV/AIDS denialists based in Perth, Western Australia who claim, in opposition to the scientific consensus, that the existence of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is not proven, and that AIDS and all the "HIV" phenomena are caused by changes in cellular redox due to the oxidative nature of substances and exposures common to all the AIDS risk groups, and are caused by the cell conditions used in the "culture" and "isolation" of "HIV".[1]
The group's activism has negatively affected the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in South Africa due to their influence on the AIDS policies of South African President Thabo Mbeki. The resulting governmental refusal to provide effective anti-HIV treatment in South Africa has been blamed for hundreds of thousands of premature AIDS-related deaths in South Africa.[2]
In 2007 the testimony of several group members was thrown out of court during the trial of an HIV-positive man charged with reckless transmission of HIV. Robert Gallo has stated that he was amazed at the Perth Group's "mass ignorance coupled with the grandiosity of selling themselves as experts".[3]