The Los Angeles (LA)  Times reports that Los Angeles police are investigating an American couple who don’€™t believe HIV causes Aids, after their three-year-old died of Aids-related pneumonia four months ago.

According to the LA Times HIV-positive mother Christine Maggiore had declined to take HIV-medications, even while pregnant, and had decided against having Eliza Jane Scovill and eight-year-old Charlie tested for the virus.

The LA Times reported that Maggiore told an ‘€œAir America’€ program: ‘€œOur children have excellent records of health.’€

She also claimed that they’€™d never had respiratory problems, flu, problematic colds or ear infections. ‘€œSo, our choices, however radical they may seem, are extremely well-founded,’€ said Maggiore.

Seven weeks later Eliza Jane was dead, the LA Times reported.

A coroner’€™s report confirmed that the cause was Aids-related pneumonia. Maggiore and her husband, Robin Scovill are now challenging the coroner’€™s report.

Los Angeles police have confirmed that they are investigating Maggiore and Scovill, for possibly endangering Eliza Jane’€™s life. Lieutenant Dennis Shirey confirmed to the LA Times that they have opened an investigation to determine whether the parents should be forced to test Charlie.

With the advances in medicine and the relative availability of drugs in the developed world it is unusual for a young child to die in the United States.

Maggiore told the LA Times that her views on the epidemic changed when she met University of California Berkeley professor Peter Duesberg, a long-time dissident voice.

Duesberg was also a controversial selection to President Thabo Mbeki’€™s notorious Aids Panel. Maggiore met briefly with Mbeki in 2000 while attending the international Aids conference in Durban.

Maggiore said that after speaking to Duesberg she started scouring the literature about the underlying science of HIV. The LA Times reported that Maggiore did not know how she became infected, but she came to believe that flu shots, pregnancy and common viral infections could lead to a positive test result.

She later detailed these claims in a book.

Maggiore later started Alive & Well Alternatives, a nonprofit group that challenges ‘€œcommon assumptions’€ about Aids.

Her group’€™s website and toll-free hotline cater to expectant HIV-positive mothers who shun Aids medications, want to breastfeed their children and seek to meet others of like mind.