Christine Maggiore

Christine Maggiore

Christine Joy Maggiore (July 25, 1956 – December 27, 2008) was an HIV-positive activist who promoted the view that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. She was the founder of Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, an organization which questions the link between HIV and AIDS and encourages HIV-positive pregnant women to avoid anti-HIV medication. Maggiore authored and self-published the book What If Everything You Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Wrong?

Maggiore's promotion of AIDS denialism had long been controversial, particularly since her 3-year-old daughter, Eliza Jane Scovill, died of Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia, considered to be an AIDS-defining illness. Consistent with her belief that HIV was harmless, Maggiore had not taken medication to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV to her daughter during pregnancy, and she did not have Eliza Jane tested for HIV during her daughter's lifetime. Maggiore hired a veterinary toxicologist (and AIDS denialist) to review the autopsy report. The toxicologist produced a report attributing Eliza Jane's death to an allergic reaction to amoxicillin, rather than AIDS. Maggiore herself died on December 27, 2008 after suffering from several AIDS-related conditions.