Why was ACIAD formed ?

Prior to the formation of ACIAD  in 2006, MP patients had to import olmesartan from Germany ( costing up to $1.60 per tablet ), import one of the antibiotics from the UK, and import NoIRs from the manufacturer ( 3 month wait, if they did at all supply )  Oz MPers had no opportunity to easily meet others going through what is a difficult and lengthy treatment.  For food advice was often erroneously tied to the situation in the USA- such as avoid all dairy foods becuase they were or could be fortified with Vitamin D.  As this situation was unsatisfactory in so many ways, a group of Australian MP paients and their families joined together to set up a new health promotion charity to support MP patients and to encourage research into immune modulating treatments for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. 

Why was ACIAD formed with a formal membership structure, rather than just an informal forum which people could join under alias names ?

ACIAD is a registered health promotion charity.  This means that its income is tax exempt and it can receive tax deductible dontations from the public.  To achieve this tax status, as we were not a long established religous or charitable body, we were required to have a formal registered membership base, with formal annual elections for a committee of management.  We have kept the annual membership fees to a very nominal $10, which are required to cover the basic annual costs of running a health promotion charity and filing the necessary annual returns.

What is the relation of ACIAD to the American based Autoimmunity Research, Inc ?

Autoimmunity Research, Inc is a private not for profit organisation founded in 2004 by Dr Trevor Marshall, the originator of the Marshall Protocol. ACIAD is required to be completely managed and controlled in Australia as part of the requirements for registration as an Australian tax exampt health promotion charity,   Therefore ACIAD has always been fully independent of Autoimmunity Research, Inc.  However this formal independence does not prevent us from actively collaborating with Autoimmunity Research, Inc and and with Dr Marshall and his colleagues so as to support MP patients and ongoing medical research activities.