It was a late 80's / early 90's thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duesberg_hypothesis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_denialism#History

I heard about this when reading the (non-peer reviewed) journal Medical Hypotheses

http://hivskeptic.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/official-italian-...

However, the article was withdrawn by Medical Hypotheses later

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/09/pity_poor_peter_du...

Unfortunately this idea seems more widespread than most people think. I know of 2 documentaries promoting this idea [1], and it still has it's followers. Of these, the scariest is probably the former president of South Africa [2].

Of all the pseudoscience and conspiracy theories in the world, I think this one bugs me the most, primarily because it has a real cost in human lives [3] (unlike moon landing or JFK conspiracies). Hopefully if/when a reliable vaccine is found, HIV can be wiped out for good and this will no longer be an issue.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Numbers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Side_of_AIDS

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thabo_Mbeki#AIDS

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Maggiore#Eliza_Jane

I've heard it before... unfortunately. It is well within "nutjob territory".

It's a fair statement to say that no credible scientist in the field honestly believes this.