Tests fail to show link between HIV, polio vaccine
By Saint moses Eromosele E.A. Esq.
New evidence presented in London shows that it is likely that the AIDS epidemic began from a mistake among polio researchers in the 1950s. Claudio Basilico of the New York University School of Medicine stated at London’s Royal Society on September 11, 2000 that there is evidence of HIV in seven samples of the oral polio vaccine from 1950.
The theory that the oral polio vaccine carried the chimpanzee virus that became AIDS is still controversial, as the vaccine scientists stated they never used chimpanzees as hosts. Hilary Koprowski of Thomas Jefferson University fears his life work on the oral polio vaccines will be forgotten amidst the polio-to-AIDS theories.
Edward Hooper, author of The River, a book published last year that espouses the theory that contaminated polio vaccine transferred HIV from chimpanzees, continues to believe his theory. Although tests of the seven samples revealed no evidence of HIV or SIV, Hooper says that other batches of polio vaccine could have been used and destroyed. Hooper explains that he is sticking to his hypothesis because he does not believe the more widely accepted “direct-transfer” or “cut-hunter” theory, in which an African hunter, who may have had an open wound, was infected with a monkey’s blood and then transmitted the virus to other humans via sexual contact.
A study from Dr. Grant Colfax, director in clinical studies HIV research in the San Francisco Department of Public Health, shows that American gay men who attend dance events known as circuit parties frequently engage in drug use and unsafe sex there, leading to a high risk of contracting HIV. Colfax and colleagues studied 300 gay and bisexual men, comparing their drug habits and sexual practices at a recent circuit party to a weekend without a circuit party. Of the party-goers, nearly 30 percent of those with HIV and 10 percent of those who were HIV-negative had unsafe anal sex and did not know their partners’ HIV status. Colfax, who reported his findings at the 13th International AIDS Conference in July, stressed that not all men at circuit parties participate in unsafe behavior.
Dr. Stephen Smith of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York reported at the meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America that topical estrogen creams could prevent heterosexual HIV transmission in women taking progestin-only contraceptive pills. Smith explained that women using Depo-Provera or other progestin-only contraceptives are estrogen-deficient and studies have shown they are two to three times more likely to contract HIV than women not using the contraceptives. He noted that estrogen has a lower pH, which viruses do not like. Smith and colleagues studied macaque monkeys with their ovaries removed, treating half with estrogen and half with progesterone, and the early results indicate that the estrogen-treated monkeys were protected against HIV infection.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found that a bone disorder called osteo necrosis is disproportionately affecting people with HIV. They are unsure what is causing the bone destruction and why it is only being seen now. The disorder, which leads to bone death from lack of blood supply, is affecting the hip bones among people with HIV. Dr. Joseph Kovacs believes the prevalence of the disorder will grow. The researchers-who presented their findings at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in New Orleans- said that although the condition was initially thought to be related to HIV drugs, this association has not yet been proven. Kovacs first detected osteo necrosis among HIV patients in May of 1999, after performing magnetic resonance imaging tests to identify the bone problem. A study of 339 HIV-infected individuals at NIH showed that 4.4 percent had avascular necrosis in at least one hip. None of the 118 HIV-negative volunteers had the bone disorder.