In a moment of righteous indignation when activists of animal rights bodies and the Animal Welfare Board released 34 monkeys from a laboratory of the National Institute of Nutrition in Hyderabad, little did they know what was in store for them. Shantha Biotech who had sponsored the research on alpha Interferon has slapped a legal suit demanding a billion rupees, on the activists and the Government of India. Today Interferon alpha is beyond the reach of most Indian pockets. The impetuous act of the animal lovers has delayed animal toxicity trials by more than a year. The court has issued a stay on further intereference with the animal trials.
Nobody knows and nobody wants to take a chance.
It is widely accepted that the HIV I virus has originated from a chimpanzee virus. How it jumped species is still hotly debated. The geographic site where the first cases of HIV were documented and the vaccine trial areas coincide. But it doesn't explain how HIV 2, which is thought to have come from the sooty mangabey, jumped species. Several more cases are being investigated and migratory birds are suspected to have introduced the virus into New York.