Christine Maggiore; disputed idea that HIV causes AIDS

C. MAGGIORE

LOS ANGELES - Christine Maggiore, an activist who vehemently denied that HIV causes AIDS, declined to take drugs to fight the disease, and sued Los Angeles County for stating that her 3-year-old daughter succumbed to AIDS-related pneumonia, has died at 52.

She died Saturday at her Van Nuys home. Her official cause was pending, county coroner Ed Winter said Tuesday.

He said it was unclear whether her death was AIDS-related. She was diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus in 1992.

She began to change her views in 1993 when she had more HIV tests that gave contradictory results, some negative and some positive.

"The more I read, the more I became convinced that AIDS research had jumped on a bandwagon that was headed in the wrong direction," she wrote on the website. Ms. Maggiore refused to take antiretroviral drugs.

In 2005, her daughter, Eliza Jane Scovill, died at age 3. The girl had never had an HIV test. A toxicologist concluded the girl died as a result of an allergic reaction to an antibiotic. Ms. Maggiore sued the county last year, and case is pending.

In addition to her husband, Ms. Maggiore leaves a son, Charles. Both have tested negative for HIV.