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scollon
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London Times
Edition 1 MON 11 MAY 1987
Smallpox vaccine 'triggered Aids virus'
BY PEARCE WRIGHT, SCIENCE EDITOR
link to search for original article (costs £10 to view)
http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/free.asp
The Aids epidemic may have been triggered by the mass vaccination
campaign which eradicated smallpox. The World Health Organization, which
masterminded the 13-year campaign, is studying new scientific evidence
suggesting that immunization with the smallpox vaccine Vaccinia awakened the
unsuspected, dormant human immuno defence virus infection (HIV).
Some experts fear that in obliterating one disease, another
disease was transformed from a minor endemic illness of the Third World into the
current pandemic. While doctors now accept that Vaccinia can activate other
viruses, they are divided about whether it was the main catalyst to the Aids
epidemic.
But an adviser to WHO who disclosed the problem, told The Times:
'I thought it was just a coincidence until we studied the latest findings about
the reactions which can be caused by Vaccinia. Now I believe the smallpox
vaccine theory is the explanation to the explosion of Aids.' 'In obliterating
one disease, another was transformed.'
Further evidence comes from the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in
Washington. While smallpox vaccine is no longer kept for public health purposes,
new recruits to the American armed services are immunized as a precaution
against possible biological warfare. Routine vaccination of a 19-year-old
recruit was the trigger for stimulation of dormant HIV virus into Aids.
This discovery of how people with subclinical HIV infection are at
risk of rapid development of Aids as a vaccine-induced disease was made by a
medical team working with Dr Robert Redfield at Walter Reed. The recruit who
developed Aids after vaccination had been healthy throughout high school. He was
given multiple immunizations, followed by his first smallpox vaccination.
Two and a half weeks later he developed fever, headaches, neck
stiffness and night sweats. Three weeks later he was admitted to Walter Reed
suffering from meningitis and rapidly developed further symptoms of Aids and
died after responding for a short time to treatment. There was no evidence that
the recruit had been involved in any homosexual activity.
In describing their discovery in a paper published in the New
England Journal of Medicine a fortnight ago, the Walter Reed team gave a warning
against a plan to use modified versions of the smallpox vaccine to combat other
diseases in developing countries. Other doctors who accept the connection between
the anti-smallpox campaign and the Aids epidemic now see answers to questions which had baffled
them. How, for instance, the Aids organism, previously regarded by scientists as
'weak, slow and vulnerable,' began to behave like a type capable of creating a
plague. Many experts are reluctant to support the theory publicly because
they believe it would be interpreted unfairly as criticism of WHO. In addition,
they are concerned about the impact on other public health campaigns with
vaccines, such as against diptheria and the continued use of Vaccinia in
potential Aids research.
The coincidence between the anti-smallpox campaign and the rise of
Aids was discussed privately last year by experts at WHO. The possibility was
dismissed on grounds of unsatisfactory evidence. Advisors to the organization
believed then that too much attention was being focussed on Aids by the media.
It is now felt that doubts would have risen sooner if public
health authorities in Africa had more willingly reported infection statistics to
WHO. Instead, some African countries continued to ignore the existence of Aids
even after US doctors alerted the world when the infection spread to the United
States.
However, as epidemiologists gleaned more information about Aids
from reluctant Central African countries, clues began to emerge from the new
findings when examined against the wealth of detail known about smallpox as
recorded in the Final Report of the Global Commission for the Certification of
Smallpox Eradication. The smallpox vaccine theory would account for the position of each
of the seven Central African states which top the league table of most-affected
countries; why Brazil became the most afflicted Latin American country; and how
Haiti became the route for the spread of Aids to the US. It also provides an
explanation of how the infection was spread more evenly between males and
females in Africa than in the West and why there is less sign of infection among
five to 11-year-olds in Central Africa.
Although no detailed figures are available, WHO information
indicated that the Aids league table of Central Africa matches the concentration
of vaccinations. The greatest spread of HIV infection coincides with the most
intense immunization programmes, with the number of people immunised being as
follows: Zaire 36,878,000; Zambia 19,060,000; Tanzania 14,972,000; Uganda
11,616,000; Malawai 8,118,000; Ruanda 3,382,000 and Burundi 3,274,000.
Brazil, the only South American country covered in the eradication
campaign, has the highest incidence of Aids in that region. About 14,000
Haitians, on United Nations secondment to Central Africa, were covered in the
campaign. They began to return home at a time when Haiti had become a popular
playground for San Francisco homosexuals.
Dr Robert Gello, who first identified the Aids virus in the US,
told The Times: 'The link between the WHO programme and the epidemic in Africa
is an interesting and important hypothesis. 'I cannot say that it actually
happened, but I have been saying for some years that the use of live vaccines
such as that used for smallpox can activate a dormant infection such as HIV. 'No
blame can be attached to WHO, but if the hypothesis is correct it is a tragic
situation and a warning that we cannot ignore.' Aids was first officially reported from San Francisco in 1981 and it was about two years later before Central African states were implicated. It
is now known that these states had become a reservoir of Aids as long ago as the
later 1970s.
Although detailed figures of Aids cases in Africa are difficult to
collect, the more than two million carriers, and 50,000 deaths, estimated by the
World Health Organization are concentrated in the Countries where the smallpox
immunization programme was most intensive. The 13-year eradication campaign
ended in 1980, with the saving of two million lives a year and 15 million
infections. The global saving from eradication has been put at dollars 1,000
million a year. Charity and health workers are convinced that millions of new Aids
cases are about to hit southern Africa. After a meeting of 50 experts near
Geneva this month it was revealed that up to 75 million, one third of the
population, could have the disease within the next five years. Some organizations which have closely studied Africa, such as War on Want, believe that South Africa's black population, so far largely protected from the disease, could be most affected as migrant workers bring it into the
country from the worst hit areas further north. The apartheid policy, they
predict, will intensify its outbreak by confining the groups into comparatively
small, highly populated towns where it will be almost impossible to contain its
spread.
Edition 1 MON 11 MAY 1987
Smallpox vaccine 'triggered Aids virus'
BY PEARCE WRIGHT, SCIENCE EDITOR
link to search for original article (costs £10 to view)
http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/free.asp
The Aids epidemic may have been triggered by the mass vaccination
campaign which eradicated smallpox. The World Health Organization, which
masterminded the 13-year campaign, is studying new scientific evidence
suggesting that immunization with the smallpox vaccine Vaccinia awakened the
unsuspected, dormant human immuno defence virus infection (HIV).
Some experts fear that in obliterating one disease, another
disease was transformed from a minor endemic illness of the Third World into the
current pandemic. While doctors now accept that Vaccinia can activate other
viruses, they are divided about whether it was the main catalyst to the Aids
epidemic.
But an adviser to WHO who disclosed the problem, told The Times:
'I thought it was just a coincidence until we studied the latest findings about
the reactions which can be caused by Vaccinia. Now I believe the smallpox
vaccine theory is the explanation to the explosion of Aids.' 'In obliterating
one disease, another was transformed.'
Further evidence comes from the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in
Washington. While smallpox vaccine is no longer kept for public health purposes,
new recruits to the American armed services are immunized as a precaution
against possible biological warfare. Routine vaccination of a 19-year-old
recruit was the trigger for stimulation of dormant HIV virus into Aids.
This discovery of how people with subclinical HIV infection are at
risk of rapid development of Aids as a vaccine-induced disease was made by a
medical team working with Dr Robert Redfield at Walter Reed. The recruit who
developed Aids after vaccination had been healthy throughout high school. He was
given multiple immunizations, followed by his first smallpox vaccination.
Two and a half weeks later he developed fever, headaches, neck
stiffness and night sweats. Three weeks later he was admitted to Walter Reed
suffering from meningitis and rapidly developed further symptoms of Aids and
died after responding for a short time to treatment. There was no evidence that
the recruit had been involved in any homosexual activity.
In describing their discovery in a paper published in the New
England Journal of Medicine a fortnight ago, the Walter Reed team gave a warning
against a plan to use modified versions of the smallpox vaccine to combat other
diseases in developing countries. Other doctors who accept the connection between
the anti-smallpox campaign and the Aids epidemic now see answers to questions which had baffled
them. How, for instance, the Aids organism, previously regarded by scientists as
'weak, slow and vulnerable,' began to behave like a type capable of creating a
plague. Many experts are reluctant to support the theory publicly because
they believe it would be interpreted unfairly as criticism of WHO. In addition,
they are concerned about the impact on other public health campaigns with
vaccines, such as against diptheria and the continued use of Vaccinia in
potential Aids research.
The coincidence between the anti-smallpox campaign and the rise of
Aids was discussed privately last year by experts at WHO. The possibility was
dismissed on grounds of unsatisfactory evidence. Advisors to the organization
believed then that too much attention was being focussed on Aids by the media.
It is now felt that doubts would have risen sooner if public
health authorities in Africa had more willingly reported infection statistics to
WHO. Instead, some African countries continued to ignore the existence of Aids
even after US doctors alerted the world when the infection spread to the United
States.
However, as epidemiologists gleaned more information about Aids
from reluctant Central African countries, clues began to emerge from the new
findings when examined against the wealth of detail known about smallpox as
recorded in the Final Report of the Global Commission for the Certification of
Smallpox Eradication. The smallpox vaccine theory would account for the position of each
of the seven Central African states which top the league table of most-affected
countries; why Brazil became the most afflicted Latin American country; and how
Haiti became the route for the spread of Aids to the US. It also provides an
explanation of how the infection was spread more evenly between males and
females in Africa than in the West and why there is less sign of infection among
five to 11-year-olds in Central Africa.
Although no detailed figures are available, WHO information
indicated that the Aids league table of Central Africa matches the concentration
of vaccinations. The greatest spread of HIV infection coincides with the most
intense immunization programmes, with the number of people immunised being as
follows: Zaire 36,878,000; Zambia 19,060,000; Tanzania 14,972,000; Uganda
11,616,000; Malawai 8,118,000; Ruanda 3,382,000 and Burundi 3,274,000.
Brazil, the only South American country covered in the eradication
campaign, has the highest incidence of Aids in that region. About 14,000
Haitians, on United Nations secondment to Central Africa, were covered in the
campaign. They began to return home at a time when Haiti had become a popular
playground for San Francisco homosexuals.
Dr Robert Gello, who first identified the Aids virus in the US,
told The Times: 'The link between the WHO programme and the epidemic in Africa
is an interesting and important hypothesis. 'I cannot say that it actually
happened, but I have been saying for some years that the use of live vaccines
such as that used for smallpox can activate a dormant infection such as HIV. 'No
blame can be attached to WHO, but if the hypothesis is correct it is a tragic
situation and a warning that we cannot ignore.' Aids was first officially reported from San Francisco in 1981 and it was about two years later before Central African states were implicated. It
is now known that these states had become a reservoir of Aids as long ago as the
later 1970s.
Although detailed figures of Aids cases in Africa are difficult to
collect, the more than two million carriers, and 50,000 deaths, estimated by the
World Health Organization are concentrated in the Countries where the smallpox
immunization programme was most intensive. The 13-year eradication campaign
ended in 1980, with the saving of two million lives a year and 15 million
infections. The global saving from eradication has been put at dollars 1,000
million a year. Charity and health workers are convinced that millions of new Aids
cases are about to hit southern Africa. After a meeting of 50 experts near
Geneva this month it was revealed that up to 75 million, one third of the
population, could have the disease within the next five years. Some organizations which have closely studied Africa, such as War on Want, believe that South Africa's black population, so far largely protected from the disease, could be most affected as migrant workers bring it into the
country from the worst hit areas further north. The apartheid policy, they
predict, will intensify its outbreak by confining the groups into comparatively
small, highly populated towns where it will be almost impossible to contain its
spread.