Long considered a contrarian by his scientific colleagues,[6] Duesberg began to gain public notoriety with a March 1987 article in Cancer Research entitled "Retroviruses as Carcinogens and Pathogens: Expectations and Reality".

[13][14] Duesberg's views are cited as major influences on South African HIV/AIDS policy under the administration of Thabo Mbeki, which embraced AIDS denialism.

[28] In 1998, Duesberg co-authored a paper reporting a correlation between chromosome number and the genetic instability of cancer cells, which they dubbed "the ploidy factor,"[29] confirming earlier research by other groups[30] that demonstrated an association between degree of aneuploidy and metastasis.

[32] In an editorial explaining their decision to publish this article, the editors of Scientific American wrote: "Thus, as wrong as Duesberg surely is about HIV, there is at least a chance that he is significantly right about cancer.

[43] Duesberg also argues that retroviruses like HIV must be harmless to survive, and that the normal mode of retroviral propagation is mother-to-child transmission by infection in utero.

Duesberg entered a long dispute with John Maddox, then-editor of the scientific journal Nature, demanding the right to rebut articles that HIV caused AIDS.

Evidence that contradicts his alternative drug hypothesis is on the other hand brushed aside...Duesberg will not be alone in protesting that this is merely a recipe for suppressing challenges to received wisdom.

The article said: ...although the Berkeley virologist raises provocative questions, few researchers find his basic contention that HIV is not the cause of AIDS persuasive.

[9] In a 2010 article on conspiracy theories in science, Ted Goertzel highlights Duesberg's opposition to the HIV/AIDS connection as an example in which scientific findings are disputed on irrational grounds, relying on rhetoric, appeal to fairness and the right to a dissenting opinion rather than on evidence.

[45] The panel was scheduled to meet concurrently with the 2000 International AIDS Conference in Durban and to convey the impression that Mbeki's doubts about HIV/AIDS science were valid and actively discussed in the scientific community.

[46] Mbeki later suffered substantial political fallout for his support for AIDS denialism[47][48] and for opposing the treatment of pregnant HIV-positive South African women with antiretroviral medication.

[51] Two independent studies have concluded that the public health policies of Thabo Mbeki's government, shaped in part by Duesberg's writings and advice, were responsible for over 330,000 excess AIDS deaths and many preventable infections, including those of infants.

Jeanne Lenzer interviews prominent HIV/AIDS expert Max Essex, who suggests that, ...history will judge Duesberg as either "a nut who is just a tease to the scientific community" or an "enabler to mass murder" for the deaths of many AIDS patients in Africa.

The article, HIV-AIDS hypothesis out of touch with South African AIDS – A new perspective, had been rejected previously by the journal JAIDS, and a peer reviewer had warned that the authors could face scientific misconduct charges if the paper were published.

[17] Elsevier permanently withdrew[52] the Duesberg article and another AIDS denialist publication and asked that the editor of the journal implement a conventional peer review process.