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According to the oral polio vaccine (OPV) AIDS hypothesis, the AIDS pandemic originated in the mass polio vaccination programs that the United Nations conducted in Africa during the late 1950s. In particular, the CHAT experimental oral vaccine is claimed to have been contaminated with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a group of viruses endemic to African primates and widely accepted as the origin of AIDS. Recent evidence shows that CHAT may have been concentrated in African facilities using tissue cultures made from chimpanzee kidneys.
The consensus of medical science is that the hypothesis is possible, but not probable or plausible. However, supporters claim that the medical establishment has a vested interest in discrediting the theory. The generally accepted natural transfer hypothesis holds that AIDS was accidentally spread to humans due to the African practice of hunting and eating monkeys and apes. Proponents of the OPV AIDS hypothesis include Edward Hooper, Louis Pascal and the late W.D. Hamilton.
Vaccines
Vaccines are weakened, attenuated versions of pathogens intended to provoke an immune response but not to cause disease. Many vaccines are grown in tissue cultures to increase the concentration of the pathogen and modify its properties. In the 1950s, when the OPV was created, there were no rules about which species to use. Chimpanzee kidneys, in particular, were marked as good cultures for growing poliovirus. Vaccines may be "live" or "killed". Live vaccines contain living pathogens and are more potent than killed vaccines. They provoke a stronger, lasting immune response and usually only one dose is required. However, they are unstable and may be contaminated with unwanted pathogens. In the 1950s, it was common practice to locally amplify oral vaccines, because the concentration of the vaccine changed unpredictably during transport. Although killed polio vaccines had been used with much success, no country wanted to be the first to test a live polio vaccine (Pascal, 1990).
The CHAT vaccine
An unrelated polio vaccine being administered in Africa, c. 1982
CHAT was an oral, live experimental vaccine created at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia by Hillary Koprowski. Between 1957 and 1960 it was given to roughly a million Africans. In Africa, it was administered in the Belgian territories; now the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. These countries also happen to be the epicentre for the HIV-1 strain of AIDS (which accounts for 99% of cases).
CHAT was an oral vaccine; it was often squirted from a syringe into the back of the patient's throat. Oral transmission is a proven, though inefficient, route for HIV infection. Cases have been confirmed of HIV being spread by oral sex and breast feeding. Mucosal cells and oral lesions, as well as the tonsils, are possible entry points for HIV. The vaccine was given to many young infants with undeveloped immune systems.
In Africa, it was standard to transport a small amount of the original vaccine and then locally amplify it using local facilities and tissue cultures harvested from native animals. In South Africa, African green monkey tissue was used to amplify the Sabin vaccine. In French West Africa and Equatorial Africa, baboons were used to amplify a vaccine from the Pasteur Institute. And in Poland, the CHAT vaccine was amplified using Asian macaques.
Recent discoveries
The LMS was sited at Kisangani, formerly Stanleyville
In 2003, Edward Hooper and colleagues travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo and uncovered testimony supporting the OPV hypothesis. In the Congo, the Laboratore Medical de Stanleyville (LMS) was responsible for testing the CHAT vaccine and perform the initial set of vaccinations. A few miles from LMS was Lindi Camp, a chimpanzee colony at which more than 500 chimps and bonobos, collected from a 300km radius, were sacrificed between 1956 and 1960.
In Kisangani, Hooper talked to former lab technicians that had worked on the vaccination program at LMS. Jacues Kanyama, a virology technician, alleged that batches of CHAT had been prepared locally, a possibility formerly denied by Belgian and American staff who claimed that the lab was too primitive and lacked equipment. According to Kanyama, Paul Osterrieth, in charge of the virology department, had been producing an oral polio vaccine on-site. Philip Elebe, a microbiology technician, claimed that tissue cultures were being produced from Lindi chimpanzees. Osterrieth disputes these claims, saying that no vaccine was prepared locally and that only the CHAT vaccine from America was used. If the accounts are true, they describe a clear mechanism for the introduction of HIV into the human population.
History
The OPV theory was first put forward by Louis Pascal, in his 1991 paper and subsequently publicized by writer Tom Curtis in a 1992 Rolling Stone article. Journalist Edward Hooper then detailed the theory in his 1999 book, The River. In 2004, the Origin of Aids TV documentary appeared on television stations globally.
Criticism
For 15 years, the OPV AIDS theory has been criticized by members of the scientific and medical establishment as being unfounded, unlikely or inconsistent with HIV epidemiology. However, although these criticisms are widely publicized, particularly by mainstream science journals, they have yet to definitively disprove the OPV hypothesis and controversy continues. In October 1992, the journal Science ran a story titled "Panel Nixes Congo Vaccine as AIDS source", on the basis of a panel arranged by the Wistar Institute, an organization at the center of this controversy. In September 2000, 6 samples of the CHAT vaccine from the Wistar Institute were independently tested and no trace of HIV, SIV or chimpanzee DNA was found. This led to widespread announcements of the death of the OPV theory, for example Robin Weiss's article in Nature titled 'Polio vaccines exonerated'. But the samples were not from the same batch as was given out in Kinshasa. Furthermore, the hypothesis that CHAT may have been prepared locally in Africa makes these criticisms less definitive.
Critics also claim that the OPV hypothesis, if widely known, would undermine public confidence in mass vaccination programs and, in particular, U.N. plans to eradicate polio. Some, such as Hillary Koprowski, have claimed that anti-vaccine sentiment in Africa has intensified due to the publicization of the hypothesis. However, Hooper argues that conspiratorial rumours about vaccination have been prevalent for most of the century and do not relate to the OPV hypothesis. Hooper also points out that he does not claim that modern polio vaccines are anything but safe[1] (http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/safety.html).
SV-40
If polio vaccination was responsible for AIDS, it is not without precedent. SV-40, the 40th discovered simian virus, was introduced into the human population in the 1950s by contaminated polio vaccines produced in Asian rhesus monkey kidney cells. It now infects 23% of the population, and is likely to be passed on to future generations. Research has shown that SV-40 induces tumours in hamsters, and has been found present in human brain tumours, mesotheliomas and bone tumours. It is accepted that SV-40 slightly increases the risk of particular varieties of cancer.
A similar case occurred in 1942, in which 50,000 US servicemen were infected with acute hepatisis B due to contaminated yellow fever vaccine.
Zoonoses
A zoonosis is a disease capable of passing between animals and humans. Like other AIDS origin hypotheses, the OPV hypothesis depends on zoonotic transfer to explain the spread of SIV into the human population and it's evolution into HIV. Examples of zoonotic transfer include Ebola virus, Marburg virus and SV-40 (see above). Arguments against xenotransplantation, the transfer of animal tissue into humans, are supported by the OPV hypothesis, if proven. Such medical experimentation could lead to future epidemics of unknown animal viruses.
See also
External links
References
- Pascal, Louis (1990). What Happens When Science Goes Bad: The Corruption of Science and the Origin of AIDS: A Study in Spontaneous Generation [2] (http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Pascal91.html)
- Hooper, Edward (2003). Aids and the Polio Vaccine. London Review of Books Vol 25, No. 7. [3] (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n07/hoop01_.html)
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