From: Billi Goldberg <bigoldberg@igc.apc.org>
Subject: VA Summary 7/17/92
Note: non-commercial reproduction.
Archive-Number: 5900
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 16:39:22 PDT

This AIDS Information Newsletter was obtained from the HIV/AIDS Info
BBS (714) 248-2836.  It is the best source of AIDS Info available.
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                   AIDS INFORMATION NEWSLETTER
                   Michael Howe, MSLS, Editor
                     AIDS Information Center
                VA Medical Center, San Francisco
                     (415) 221-4810 ext 3305
                          July 17, 1992 
               SPECIAL TOPIC ISSUE: ORIGIN OF AIDS 
                      DEBATE ON AIDS ORIGIN 
     An article featured in Rolling Stone magazine (March 19, 1992) that 
addresses the origin of AIDS has prompted a lot of controversy.  Tom 
Curtis' article, "The Origin of AIDS," hypothesizes that HIV first 
entered humans in Africa via an oral polio vaccine widely administered 
in the late 1950s.  Some  researchers argue that the article's 
hypothesis is not impossible because simian viruses were found to taint 
some early polio vaccines.  However, most AIDS researchers believe the 
hypothesis is inaccurate.  The article explains how Hilary Koprowski, 
former director of Philadelphia's Wistar Institute and one of the 
pioneers of the polio vaccine, may have administered an HIV-contaminated 
oral vaccine which was used to control polio epidemics in the  Belgian 
Congo--now comprised of Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi--and later used widely 
in Poland and Switzerland. Curtis indicates that HIV infection may have 
transpired via mucosal cells, lesions in the mouth, or through 
aerosolized virus trickling into the lungs.  Curtis also suggests 
Kaprowski believed that uninfected macaques from India and the 
Philippine were used, but the macaques may have contracted SIV while 
caged with other infected animals. (Science. 1992 Mar 
20;255(5051):1505). 
           RESEARCHERS TO PROBE THEORY ON AIDS ORIGIN 
   PHILADELPHIA (UPI) -- The Wistar Institute, an independent research 
facility on the University of Pennsylvania campus, is assembling a 
research team to test a theory that AIDS originated more than 30 years 
ago.  Wistar Director Giovanni Rovera said he is in the process of 
assembling a team of researchers to evaluate the theory which was 
presented in a Rolling Stone article.  The  article speculates that HIV 
may have been present in tissue from a monkey kidney used by Dr. Hilary 
Koprowski to grow a polio vaccine distributed in the Belgian Congo. 
    Koprowski is quoted in the article as saying that samples of the 
original vaccine are still preserved in freezers at Wistar. Lisa 
Dominici, a Wistar spokeswoman, said if the specimens are located, 
scientists should be able to determine if they contain HIV. But she said 
most experts agree it is highly unlikely that the current AIDS epidemic 
originated from a contaminated monkey kidney. "The article is highly 
speculative and the overwhelming reaction from the scientific community 
is that it's totally unreasonable," Dominici said. "But that doesn't 
mean we're going to dismiss it. We plan to handle this in a responsible 
way."  (UPI, March 19, 1992). 
         PANEL APPOINTED TO PROBE THEORY ON AIDS ORIGIN 
   A blue-ribbon panel of six scientists has been appointed to evaluate 
a theory that AIDS originated in a batch of polio vaccine prepared at 
the Wistar Institute and distributed in Africa. Wistar Director Giovanni 
Rovera said he appointed the panel "in the interest of responsible 
scientific research and accurate reporting," after the theory appeared 
in the March 19 issue of Rolling Stone magazine.  
   The committee is co-chaired by Dr. Claudio Basilico, chairman of the 
microbiology department at New York University's School of Medicine and 
Frank Lilly, a molecular genetics professor at Albert Einstein College 
of Medicine in New York. The other committee members include Ronald 
Desrosiers, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard 
Medical School; David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research 
Center and a microbiology professor at New York University Medical 
Center; Eckard Wimmer, chairman of the microbiology department of the 
School of Medicine of State University of New York at Stony Brook; and 
Clayton Buck, professor and director of scientific development at the 
Wistar Institute. (UPI, April 13, 1992). 
                NO AIDS RISK FROM POLIO VACCINES  
 From the Food and Drug Administration: 
    Recently several stories have appeared in the media linking early 
polio vaccine trials to the origin or spread of the AIDS virus.  The 
Public Health Service has seen no convincing evidence to support this 
alleged connection or even indicates that it is remotely possible.  On 
the contrary, PHS, the World Health Organization and all other leading 
medical authorities who have  evaluated this question have concluded 
that the polio vaccine does not and has never posed a risk of 
transmitting the AIDS virus or any related virus. 
    The theory which alleges that polio vaccine is linked to the spread 
of AIDS, postulates that kidneys from monkeys infected with various 
retroviruses are, or were, used in the production of polio vaccine.  
According to the theory, this rendered the vaccine capable of infecting 
humans with the AIDS virus. 
    There are several factors which refute the credibility of this 
theory:  
    -  Monkey kidneys are used as cultures for producing polio vaccine, 
but these monkeys are not infected with the simian immunodeficiency 
virus (SIV)---a retrovirus which affects monkeys.  The absence of this 
retrovirus in these monkeys in the United States is assured, in that 
only monkeys from SIV-free colonies are used.  Every monkey is tested 
for antibodies to SIV. 
    -  Even with regard to older polio vaccines produced in kidney cells 
from monkeys that may have been infected (before modern screening tests 
were available), extensive evidence indicates that these vaccines did 
not contain or transmit SIV. Such vaccines were tested by various 
laboratory techniques, and no SIV was detected. Individuals vaccinated 
with such vaccines have been tested and found not to have antibodies to 
SIV.  In addition, multiple efforts to recover SIV from kidney cells 
have failed, and  attempts to get SIV to replicate in monkey kidney 
cells exposed to a highly infectious inoculum have also failed. 
     -  There are no reliable scientific data which indicate that the 
AIDS virus originated from monkey retroviruses.  
    -  The World Health Organization has stated that there is no 
evidence of transmission of SIV to humans via polio vaccine.  
    In summary, several avenues of research show that the theory that 
links the polio vaccine to the origin or spread of AIDS does not make 
much sense from a virologic standpoint.  Additionally, the theory does 
nothing to explain the known epidemiology of the AIDS pandemic, and 
therefore provides no substantive insight into the real origin or nature 
of AIDS.  
    The existence of this unsubstantiated theory should not deter people 
from receiving needed polio vaccinations.  Polio is a very real 
infectious disease which has killed and crippled millions throughout the 
world.  Global  polio vaccine immunization efforts have saved literally 
millions of lives, particularly in the Third World, and should not be 
undermined by sensationalized speculation. (FDA Release, April 6, 1992). 
"Origins of HIV"  Lancet (07/04/92) Vol. 340, No. 8810, P. 58  (Neal, 
Keith)   
     The urbanization of Africa may explain how two sexually transmitted 
strains of HIV suddenly appeared and quickly prompted an epidemic, 
writes Keith Neal of the Westbrook House in Sheffield, U.K.  Neal 
disputes Professor Lecatsas's and Professor Alexander's conclusion that 
the simultaneous incidence of HIV-1 and HIV-2 is proof that the 
contamination of poliovirus vaccine was the origin of AIDS.  Neal argues 
that changes that occurred in Africa since the end of colonialism have 
affected the HIV epidemic, especially rapid urbanization across the 
continent and a mass movement of people due to civil war and starvation.  
HIV-1 and HIV-2 were brought into the cities and towns through the 
erosion of tribal traditions and the resulting increase in sexual 
freedom, the encouragement of multiple sex partners, the rise in poverty 
among  women leading to increasing numbers turning to prostitution, and 
the rising demand for prostitution spurred by the migrant worker system.  
In addition, the developing road system transported the virus across the 
continent as indicated by high rates of infection among truck drivers. 
"Origins of HIV" Lancet (06/06/92) Vol339, No.8806, P.1427 (Lecatsas, G. 
and  Alexander, J.J.) 
      Due to the circumstantial evidence regarding the possibility that 
the poliovirus vaccine could have been the origin of AIDS, to ignore it 
would be ethically and scientifically wrong, write G. Lecatsas and J.J. 
Alexander of the Medical University of Southern Africa in Medunsa, South 
Africa.  In the March 7 edition of the Lancet, Kyle discussed the 
possibility of HIV's origin lying in  poliovaccines, an idea that was 
proposed in 1989 and again at the International Congress of Virology in 
Berlin, in August, 1990. Lecatsas and Alexander have tested a healthy 
vervet monkey for major HIV-1 antigens and the results were positive.  
Using this animal's tissue for human vaccine production would be 
unethical.  But this could have happened several times because monkey 
kidney  tissue was first used in poliovaccine production in the 1950s.  
These cultures could boost the growth of retroviruses.  HIV can infect 
certain CD4 cells and there is evidence that some mouse and simian 
fibroblast cultures encompass the CD4 antigen.  A man with the 
simultaneous occurrence within the past 30 years of HIV-1 and HIV-2, 
which are distantly related in evolutionary-terms, indicates 
contamination since closer relatives to the human strains exist in  non-
human primates, the authors conclude. 
"Possible Origins of AIDS"  Science (05/29/92) Vol. 256, No. 5061, P. 
1259 (Fox, Cecil H.)   
    Jon Cohen's article on "the origin of AIDS from polio vaccine" did 
not consider more complex alternative theories, writes Cecil H. Fox in a 
letter to Science.  One explanation could be that rural Africans 
supplement their diet by hunting and eating small wild animals, 
frequently simians who carry simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).  Those 
Africans who hunt these animals occasionally injure themselves while 
preparing the carcasses, and animal blood has possibly entered human 
tissues through inadvertent cuts.  If a villager was infected with an 
animal virus in the years before the 1960s, others in the village could 
have also acquired the infection, which translates to HIV. Another 
hypothesis involves the parental or mucosal exposure of up to 400 
million people to vaccines made from crude extracts of primary cultures 
of monkey tissues from 1952-1982.  There is evidence that either HIV or 
SIV can grow in cultured lymphocytes  or macrophages that may accompany 
industrial cultures of epithelium taken from wild monkeys and used in 
polio vaccines, concludes Fox. 
"The Source of HIV?"  Advocate (05/05/92) No. 602, P. 33  (Delaney, 
Martin)  
     All of the speculation over whether or not HIV originated from 
polio vaccines of the 1950s is just a distraction from the real issues 
of AIDS, writes Martin Delaney of Project Inform, a nonprofit gay 
foundation that supplies AIDS treatments worldwide. Researchers have 
considered that a similar strain of HIV from monkeys somehow jumped 
species.  The new theory states that the virus could have made its way 
into polio vaccines tested in central Africa in the late 1950s, a time 
when there was no means to screen for HIV. Researchers are arguing over 
whether to test the remaining samples of the vaccines for traces of HIV-
like virus. If the vaccines are found to be tainted it would not alter 
the AIDS epidemic or improve precautions in future vaccines development. 
However, it would impose a burden of remorse on people in the '50s who 
wished to save the world from polio.  Testing the vaccines might be the 
only way to end speculation, but is not worth the negative impact it 
could have,  Delaney concludes.  
"Origin of AIDS"  Lancet (04/04/92) Vol. 339, No. 8797, P. 867  (Schulz, 
Thomas F.)
     The implication that poliovirus vaccine lots were the source of the 
AIDS epidemic at present lacks any factual basis, writes Thomas F. 
Schulz of the Institute of Cancer Research in London, U.K.  In the March 
7 Lancet, Kyle hypothesized that retrovirus particles were present in 
some lots of oral poliovirus vaccine grown on African green monkey cells 
and that there may be a link to the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) 
isolated from these monkeys. While this SIV (agm) is a lentivirus like 
HIV-1 and HIV-2 it belongs to a different group.  SIV (cpz), isolated 
from chimpanzees, is the closest primate relative of HIV-1 found in 
free-living monkeys.  Viruses related to SIV (agm) have never been found 
in humans.  Although the SIV (agm) isolates are more  divergent than 
isolates from the other lentivirus groups, they can still be grouped 
separately and differ from the HIV-1/SIV (cpz). If the retroviral 
particles observed in certain poliovirus vaccine lots were SIV (agm) 
virions (not C-type viruses), they cannot be the origin of HIV-1 and 
HIV-2, Schulz concludes.  
"Origins of a Plague"  U.S. News + World Report (03/30/92) Vol.112, 
No.12, P.50 (Brownlee, Shannon)  
     Many theories exist as to how the AIDS epidemic originated. The 
most recent, published in Rolling Stone magazine, involves a polio 
vaccine that carried the simian version of HIV. The controversial idea 
has been widely derided by most scientists as simplistic and unprovable.  
However, the hypothesis does reveal one major point of consensus: 
African monkeys are almost certainly the source of the virus.  The 
Rolling Stone story told of Hilary  Kaprowski, former director of the 
Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, who was racing to develop the vaccine 
that would protect the world against polio. Kaprowski created his 
vaccine from an attenuated strain of polio virus that could invoke 
immunity but was too weak to cause disease.  He manufactured his vaccine 
by culturing this weakened strain of polio virus on monkey kidneys, a 
fertile medium for the microbe and supposedly the source of simian  
immunodeficiency virus.  Kaprowski's vaccine was squirted into people's 
mouths and given to at least 200,000 rural Africans in 1957.  
"A Medical Accident?" Time (03/16/92) Vol. 139, No., 11, P. 56 
     An article published in a recent issue of Rolling Stone speculates 
that an oral polio vaccine given to the people of the Belgian Congo in 
1957 may be responsible for the birth of HIV. The vaccine, developed by 
Dr. Hilary Koprowski, was made from weakened polio viruses grown in a 
culture of monkey kidney cells. Koprowski's recent recollection that 
green monkeys--the species  which harbors a virus similar to HIV--were 
used for the culture, as well as the coincidence that the Belgian Congo-
-now Zaire--is thought to be the place of origin for HIV, led writer Tom 
Curtis to hypothesize that the vaccine was contaminated with a virus 
which later evolved into HIV.  Among the problems with Curtis' theory 
are the time span between the use of the vaccine and the first incidence 
of HIV, and the uncertainty over whether HIV can survive oral ingestion. 
Testing of the original vaccine, which has been kept at Philadelphia's 
Wistar Institute since, will begin shortly, according to Wistar 
officials. 
"Simian Retroviruses, Poliovaccine, and Origin of AIDS" Lancet 
(03/07/92) Vol. 339, No. 8793, P. 600  (Kyle, Walter S.) 
     AIDS may have stemmed from the unapproved use of poliovaccine,  
contaminated with small numbers of type-C retrovirus, for the treatment 
of herpetic lesions, a sexually transmitted condition often noted in 
early case histories of homosexual men who died of AIDS, writes Walter 
S. Kyle.  A decade ago, simultaneous outbreaks of Kaposi's sarcoma and 
serious opportunistic infections were reported among homosexual men, 
especially in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.  In 1982, 
Centers for Disease Control reported that the coincidence of Kaposi's 
sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia "strongly suggests the 
occurrence of a single epidemic of underlying immunosuppression in 
homosexual men." Essex and colleagues reported that the African green 
monkey, the species used in the production of most live poliovaccine in 
the United States, was a reservoir of simian immunodeficiency virus. 
Whether virus particles found in those vaccine lots were HIV or a 
variant of HIV can be tested by using the polymerase chain reaction, 
Kyle  concludes.  
"Origin of AIDS" Lancet (12/21-28/91) Vol. 338, No. 8782/8783, P. 1604 
(Gebhardt, D.O.E) 
     The November 28 edition of Nature's commentary entitled "AIDS, 
monkeys, and malaria" indicated that primate retroviruses may have been 
transmitted to a man or other monkeys as an outcome of experiments with 
primate malarias, writes D.O.E. Gebhardt of the Department of Clinical 
Chemistry at the University Hospital in Liden, Netherlands.  The same 
week an editorial in the Lancet on  "New Glands for Old" appeared which 
referred to the work of Serge Voronoff, who transplanted monkey glands 
into the scrota of hypogonadal males.  These men could have contracted 
HIV.  Voronoff described a 65-year-old man who needed a second graft as 
"having been over-prodigal of the vital energy supplied him by the old 
one." It would be catastrophic if this transplant were the origin of the 
AIDS epidemic, Gebhardt concludes. 
"Origin and Spread of AIDS" Nature (12/13/91) Vol. 348, No. 6302, P. 578 
(Karpas, A.) 
     Human AIDS very likely began as a lentivirus that naturally 
infected African monkeys until cross-species transfer occurred through 
sexual practices involving human inoculation with monkey blood for a 
supposed aphrodisiac effect, writes A. Kaspar of the University of 
Cambridge, United Kingdom.  HIV-2 shares roughly 75 percent homology 
with SIV, indicating simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infections 
could have given rise to AIDS in West African men.  Furthermore, a 
lentivirus recently isolated from a chimp may be the missing link 
between HIV-1 and SIV.  Hundreds of years of European and Asian slave 
trade in Africa produced no evidence of HIV infection, so the spread in 
Africa is a recent event. Epidemiologic evidence indicates the disease 
has spread since World War II via syringes and needles from the West and 
injectable antibiotics, extensive migration in Africa, and sexual 
contacts overseas. More  than a dozen cases of other SIV infections of 
humans indicate the possibility of trans-species infection, in which a 
virus benign in monkeys becomes deadly in humans, Karpas writes. 
"Origin of AIDS" Nature (05/16/91) Vol. 351, No. 6323, P. 179  
(Lecatsas, G.) 
     In a letter to Nature, A. Karpas was premature in singling out 
African tribal customs as the origin of AIDS in man, writes G. Lecatsas 
of the Department of Microbiology, Medical University of Southern 
Africa, South Africa.  African tribal customs are old and the disease is 
new.  Karpas also fails to mention the use of tissues from African 
monkeys carrying simian HIV counterparts in vaccination programs in 
Africa after World War II, concomitant to the introduction of syringes 
on the continent.  Karpas omits documented evidence of poliovirus 
transmission to man via vaccine preparations from monkey tissues, as 
well as the possibility of recombinant simian viruses or endogenous 
human retroviruses.  Poor health conditions in developing countries also 
make widespread infection likely in Africa, as well as in Brazil and 
Thailand. "The  evidence pointing to Africa [as] the origin of AIDS is 
tenuous at best," Lecatsas writes, and, because of social repercussions, 
it is "biased" and imprudent to single out African peoples and customs 
as the agents of a tragic pandemic.