From: Billi Goldberg <bigoldberg@igc.org>
Subject: Monkey Infections
Note: non-commercial reproduction.
Archive-Number: 4817
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 22:15:38 PDT

I've got another one of my silly theories so I just thought I would
put it up on sci.med.aids and let it get destroyed.  Oh well, that's 
life.

Of course, it concerns the Origin of AIDS: The Monkey Capers.

It has been stated that African green monkeys can get infected with SIV 
and not shown symptoms.  Rhesus, macaques, etc. when infected do show 
symptoms of SIV.  When using monkeys for preparation of polio vaccines, 
they "gang caged" these monkeys and check them for diseases.  Obviously, 
they couldn't have checked them for SIV and other viral infections 
because there were no tests at that time.

Now let's say that no African greens were used, as some have vehemently 
stated.  All monkeys showing symptoms of any diseases were discarded.
There is always the possibility that the monkeys were infected but the 
infection was latent, but who knows.

I certainly believe that the scientists, researchers, and assistants 
were extremely dedicated and ran many tests to be sure that the monkeys 
were healthy.  I don't know how often they drew blood, but it must have
been quite often.  I would presume that these blood samples were tested 
for every conceivable microorganism known at the time.  Monkeys are 
quite cantankerous and drawing blood must have been difficult and 
probably relegated to the lowest assistant since it was probably 
considered "scut" work. 

As I remember the syringes of yesteryear, they were stainless steel 
monstrosities with a built in glass tube.  (Plastic was still in the 
distant future.)  The needles were built to last.  Remember, that was 
before transmission of viral diseases was tied to common usage of 
syringes and needles.  I doubt very much that these syringes used to 
test the blood of monkeys, who were doomed to die, were discarded 
between each sample of blood drawn.  I also doubt that the syringes were 
cleaned with a disinfectant between drawing each sample of blood.  I 
also doubt that the needles were replaced or cleaned between drawing 
each sample of blood.

As has been shown in the last decade, contaminated syringes are an 
excellent method of transmission for viral diseases.  In Roumania, 
scores of babies were infected with HIV from contaminated syringes.  I 
needn't bother to reiterate what happens when IVDUs do not use clean 
syringes and needles.

I doubt that syringe contamination was much of a worry in the fifties, 
sixties, and seventies.  If they tested the blood of the monkeys to be 
used in making vaccines, there is an excellent chance that it would only 
take one infected monkey to contaminate a whole cage full even though 
that monkey would be discarded when it showed symptoms of sickness .

Therefore, the more dedicated the scientists and researchers were, the 
greater could have been the possibility that they were the instruments 
of monkey contamination and polio vaccine contamination. 

I presume that in this day and age, they are very careful about syringe 
contamination when testing the blood of live (and dead) specimens such 
as monkeys.
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids