After a few methodological remarks, Rossi defines the terms AIDS and HIV; traces the history of the disease since its discovery; and clarifies the reasons why it was detected in a well-defined moment in time. A detailed epidemiological and statistical analysis demonstrates that AIDS cases, currently in marked and progressive decline, are much fewer than one would normally think. He then discusses at risk subjects, the probabilities of contracting AIDS as regards certain behaviors, and its development over time. The author further discusses from a traditional viewpoint which he transforms convincingly the causes of the syndrome, the origin of HIV, where it comes from, what it's made of, how it behaves and how the organism reacts. A description of the symptoms of AIDS follows, along with an inventory of AIDS related diseases; the drugs currently in use to fight it; and the vaccines still in the elaboration phase. Finally, after having discussed the validity of the laboratory research seeking to diagnose the disease, Rossi also considers the relation which seems to exist between viruses and nucleic acids from the viewpoint of information technology, and he then considers at length the biotechnological aspects of the problem. 

The author demonstrates that the questions relative to AIDS arise in large measure from a misunderstanding of the dialectic of natural phenomena in general, and of biological ones in particular. Moreover, the language which is often used to describe them is not, according to him, the most appropriate to describe events that we understand only in a superficial and approximate manner.

Currently the problem is framed from several diametrically opposed 

points of view. The divergence of ideas which affects different groups of researchers has not only scientific importance, but also and above all practical importance, since according to the point of view one has, the cure prescribed for people living with AIDS changes radically. There are at present three major hypotheses, each of which seeks its validation in various arguments.

The first theory, formulated by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) of Atlanta, attributes to a virus, HIV, the exclusive cause of AIDS; the second, upheld by R. Gallo and L. Montagnier, considers HIV to be a "co-cause", i.e. a necessary but insufficient condition for the disease to manifest; and finally the third theory was originated by Peter Dusberg, member of the Academy of Science of the United States and Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Berkeley in California. For the American researcher, the presence of HIV in the blood of several people with AIDS is a mere coincidence. The causes of the syndrome are to be found elsewhere, and are to be evinced above all in the lifestyle and the medication and drug history of the patients. AZT, one of several drugs which assumes particular significance in this regard, is defined by Dusberg as nothing less than "AIDS by prescription". 

As we can see, the three positions, and particularly the first and third, are absolutely irreconcilable. If we should synthesize the whole debate in extreme but real terms, we could say that the supporters of viral etiology seek to prevent AIDS by administering to perfectly healthy individuals a drug which, according to Dusberg and his followers, is one of the causes of the disease. 

In fact, the confusion regarding the way to proceed vividly recalls the Tower of Babel. In more rigorously pragmatic terms, when one moves from theories to facts, i.e. from doctrinal speculation to diagnostic formulations and therapeutic prescriptions, the situation gets even worse because the HIV-positive subject finds him - or herself in the unenviable position of not understanding anything anymore: s/he doesn't know whom to believe, is at a loss and at wit's end. 

The "specialistic" analysis of an argument warrants a deeper and deeper probe into the supposed causes of the problem, but by paying ever greater attention to details and by limiting the sphere of inquiry ever more one risks, as E. Chargaff has pointed out knowing everything about nothing. On the other hand, by initiating an examination of this kind, one finally notices that the object of study is rich in particulars common to other circumstances, and that therefore what had previously been a restricted investigation based on a theme becomes wider, similar to two pyramids with adjacent sides and which share the same vertex. In Elio Rossi's book, the two apexes are represented by HIV and AIDS, but the foundations that support them are also important: He discusses them by taking into account the metaphor and proceeding, in the manner of Wittgenstein, vertically, horizontally, and in all directions.

The author describes and discusses the arguments that the three research groups present in support of their ideas, and is inclined to conclude that the cause of the disease is multifactor. HIV, admitting that it exists as a biologically distinct phenomenon, something that until now has not been exhaustively and persuasively demonstrated, would not have any etiologic relation with AIDS, which did not, in fact, burst onto the scene, as one would have us believe, at the beginning of the 1980s; AIDS has always existed, in sporadic form, even though it had never been identified as a gnosologically autonomous entity. The truly responsible agent of the disease would be the immune system, or rather all the conditions that, directly or indirectly, depress its activity. In other terms, diverse natural events, intrinsic and extrinsic, congenital and acquired, alone or in reciprocal interaction, would be at the cause of the syndrome. This is the central aspect of the problem, not the virus.

AZT and protease inhibitors, which act as real toxins, aggravate the disease rather than resolve it, while the cures which aim at restoring the efficiency of the immune and neuroendocrine systems, in advanced stages of experimentation as of this writing, have given excellent results.

Dr. Elio Rossi narrates difficult arguments in a convincing manner using simple and clear terminology. His book is accessible, both formally and substantially, to anyone of average culture. It is foreseeable that this volume, anti-conformist and against the grain, but very well documented from a scientific point of view, will be sold out as soon as it hits the bookstores.