From: itsmine@med.unc.edu (Greg Popken)
Subject: Re: Simian AIDS
Organization: UNC-CH School of Medicine
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 18:31:50 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.165013.11348@super.org> wheeler@super.org (Ferrell S. Wheeler) writes:
>Lab Workers/"Monkey" AIDS
>
>>From IPPL News, December 1992, International Primate
>Protection League, P.O. Box 766, Summerville, SC  29484:
> 
>     LAB WORKERS TEST POSITIVE FOR "MONKEY" AIDS
> 
>The 11 September 1992 issue of the US Centers for Disease
>Control (CDC) _Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report_
>announced that the blood of two laboratory workers working
>with monkeys had tested positive for "Simian AIDS."
> 
>This monkey disease is highly fatal to monkeys, and has
>affected stumptail macaques at the Yerkes Primate Center,
>Atlanta, Georgia.  Stumptail macaques are listed on the US
>Endangered Species List as "Threatened."  According to Yerkes'
>1991 Annual Report:
> 
>"A closed colony of [stumptail macaques] was established in
>1964 and was maintained as a closed colony till 1981 when four
>[new] animals were introduced... In 1986, we learned that the
>animals introduced into the colony were from an SIV-infected
>colony...the colony remained healthy until mid-1988 when
>increased clinical problems became apparent...Of 17 deaths
>that occurred from mid-1988 through 1989, 12 were seropositive
>to SIV and the serological status of 4 was unknown.  The only
>known seronegative animal was a 10 month old infant.  The
>major finding at necropsy was severe weight loss with a
>significant number of animals having oro-esophageal
>candidiasis and intestinal mycobacteriosis...Morbidity and
>mortality continued to occur through July 1990."
> 
>Only 9 members were alive by July 1990.  The _Report_ notes
>that:
> 
>"The study demonstrates widespread natural transmission of SIV
>infection within a colony of stumptailed macaques with
>devastating consequences."
> 
>Clearly, if ever the monkey AIDS virus spread to humans, the
>results could be disastrous.
> 
>As early as November 1988, CDC had published guidelines to
>reduce the risk of transmission of "Monkey AIDS" to laboratory
>workers.  However, two workers sero-converted although they
>have not become sick.
> 
>In Case 1, a technician at a research laboratory sustained a
>stick with a blood-contaminated needle after drawing blood
>form a monkey infected with Monkey AIDS six months previously.
> 
>Case 2 involved a worker at another primate facility who had
>worked on clinical specimens of monkey tissue without wearing
>gloves.
> 
>CDC noted in an "Editorial Note" that Simian AIDS viruses can
>infect some primate species without causing disease, but, when
>experimentally inoculated into other primate species, the
>viruses can cause a disease similar to human AIDS.
> 
>Whether the massive amount of experimentation with animal
>AIDS-related viruses across the nation could ever produce a
>mutated virus capable of infecting humans more easily than
>known AIDS viruses is a matter of increasing concern to some
>virologists.
> 
> 


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