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Heart of darkness revisited: 'Every one of all known HIV-1 cases in Africa before 1981 came from places within 160km of those CHAT vaccination sites.' Could the AIDS pandemic have been sparked off by polio researchers in Belgium's former African colonies?
Sunday Times, South Africa - November 14, 1999
Andrew Donaldson
However, the political unrest is of little concern to the doctors, Arno Motulsky and Jean Vandepitte, who are busy with microbiological research into malaria. With the help of local doctors, they collect blood samples from medical staff, hospital patients and police recruits in Leopoldville.
A quarter of a century later, these blood samples, together with others gathered from various areas in sub-Saharan Africa, arrive in the US, where an academic at Atlanta's Emory University, Professor Andr Nahmias, tests them for the presence of antibodies to the virus that causes AIDS.
Over several months in 1985, the samples are subjected to exhaustive tests, first at Emory and then at Harvard, before results are confirmed at two independent laboratories. One sample - L70, from a batch of 99 specimens taken in Leopoldville in 1959 - emerges positive in all tests: taken from an unknown African male who lived in a city soon renamed Kinshasa, it is the oldest specimen of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, in existence.
It's not known what happened to that African male, but in the two decades since his blood was taken - and before 1981, or Year Zero for AIDS, the year the US officially recognises the epidemic - a number of other Africans and European visitors to Africa will be infected with HIV-1, the first strain of the virus to be identified.
These are cases who wound up in clinics and hospitals - mainly in the Congo, but also in Rwanda and Burundi - with what we now recognise as principal AIDS-type symptoms: aggressive Kaposi's sarcoma, toxoplasmosis, diarrhoea, tuberculosis and other ailments. Doctors were baffled at the time, but blood samples were taken - and years later, after tests, were found to be HIV-1 positive.
What's disturbing about these cases is that 87 percent of them - that is, of all known samples of HIV-1 from Africa from 1980 or earlier - come from those towns where an oral polio vaccine, known as CHAT, was fed to Africans between 1957 and 1960. Put another way, every one of all known HIV-1 cases in Africa before 1981 came from places within 160km of those CHAT vaccination sites.
AIDS and the polio vaccine - is there a link? Author Edward Hooper suggests there is, and, in his staggering work The River: A Journey Back to the Source of HIV and AIDS , he offers a powerful and exhaustively researched argument.
But this hypothesis is not new. At least three different researchers around the world, working independently of one another, offered up slightly differing versions of the theory in the late '80s.
One of them was Professor Jennifer Alexander, head of the Department of Microbiology at the University of the Witwatersrand. Together with Professor Gerasmos Lecatsas, chief virologist at Medunsa, Alexander published letters proposing the polio vaccine hypothesis - first in the SA Medical Journal in 1989 and then, in 1992, in the British medical journal Lancet. Both letters provoked savage criticism in medical circles.
It was a meeting with Alexander, in a Belgian restaurant in 1992, that prompted Hooper, on his return to England, to resign as a teacher and devote his life to working on the theory that the vaccine led to AIDS.
"For the first time," he writes of that meeting with Alexander, "I was convinced that as far as CHAT went, there was a genuine case to answer."
Underpinning his inquiry was the following question: If, as it now seems certain, HIV can be traced back to retroviruses found in certain species of African apes and monkeys, like the simian immunodeficiency viruses, or SIVs (which are the closest known relatives of the HIVs), how did these simian viruses suddenly - and not gradually , as those who believe in a natural movement across the species barrier would suggest - transfer to humans in the late 20th century?
The short answer, Hooper believes, is that doctors, unwittingly and acting with the noblest intentions, put them there.
His search for the source of AIDS took him backwards from the gay bathhouses of New York to the Caribbean island of Haiti, which had a reputation as a holiday destination for European and American sex tourists in the '70s, and then to the Republic of Congo (it was only renamed to Zaire in 1972), which, after the mass exodus of Belgian settlers in 1959 and 1960, was forced to "import" Haitian technocrats to help run the country.
In the Congo, Hooper focused his attention on Lindi, a camp on the River Congo some 14km from Stanleyville (now Kisangani) where captured apes and monkeys were caged and then sacrificed for their kidneys, which were minced for substrate, or tissue culture used to perfect vaccines.
The vaccine in this case, CHAT, was developed in the '50s by Dr Hilary Koprowski, a pioneer American virologist and, as a developer of a set of oral polio vaccines, the first person to feed the vaccine to humans in 1950.
Koprowski arrived at Lindi in 1957 to oversee vaccine research there, but little else is known about his work at the camp, other than that some of the animals he and his colleagues worked with were evidently sick.
"We do not know exactly what happened at Lindi," Hooper writes, "but there is a huge and unexplained gap in the records of the experiments conducted there, and considerable secrecy surrounds the work carried out on the chimps - secrecy that continues to this day.
"What we do know is that two species of chimpanzee were housed in the camp, often in the same cages. We know that hundreds of the chimps that entered Lindi are unaccounted for, and that some of the chimps had symptoms of immunosuppression, suggesting they may have been infected with SIV . . . Furthermore, it is clear that a pool of [CHAT] vaccine made in chimp kidney tissue culture could have been produced [in poor conditions] in Stanleyville itself."
Between February 1957 and June 1960, an estimated 330 000 Africans were vaccinated with CHAT in the former Belgian Congo and, between February 1958 and March 1960, a further 660 000 in the Rwanda-Burundi regions - almost a million CHAT vaccinees in Belgium's former colonies. All this before a single white Belgian in Africa was vaccinated.
In a massive, apparently unsupervised operation, Africans from the Ruzizi Valley in Rwanda and Burundi took part in CHAT's first mass trials between February and April 1958. "Nobody supervised," a defensive Koprowski told Hooper. "They feed the children. They feed the infants. They supervised the whole thing and fed 256 000 in six weeks . . . the call to mass vaccination was made by . . . drums, drums, drums, drums.
"And it was a heroic undertaking, 256 000 in six weeks. They were on their feet for a long time. And every day a new wave, a new wave, standing. They finished always with darkness."
Hooper makes it clear that Koprowski and others involved in the race to eradicate polio were "great pioneers of tissue culture development" and worthy of "enormous credit". But it was a race nonetheless - one in which national pride and personal honour were at stake, possibly to the detriment of acceptable scientific practices.
In Koprowski's defence, however, is the fact that - as far as is known - no sample of CHAT virus or vaccine has ever been tested and found to contain SIV or HIV. Hooper, however, suggests that tests could be carried out on CHAT polio viruses held in various international research institutes to this end.
As for the AIDS epidemic, it continues - and so does medical science's struggle against it. "The biotechnological advances of the last 25 years hold out tantalising promises of human advancement and happiness," Hooper notes, "but they also confront us, potentially, with the greatest dangers that our species has ever faced.
"Are we mature enough to proceed cautiously, and sensibly, amid that understandable clamour from the optimistic, the egotistic, the foolhardy, and the desperate, amid those pressing demands to take bold steps before it is too late?
"Or are we about to make the same mistakes all over again?"
The parallels between AIDS and polio are obvious. In 1959, as now, there was a fearsome disease of global concern and enormous pressure for a cure. Then, as now, scientists were not only fuelled by noble intentions, but also fired by more selfish motives of prestige and potentially huge profits.
Meanwhile, 40 years later and because of the internal strife there, polio vaccination initiatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been disrupted. As a result, it is chillingly ironic that the region is once again a stronghold for the disease.
The River: A Journey Back to the Source of HIV and AIDS by Edward Hooper is published by Penguin
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One million black Africans immunized with CHAT. If all of the vaccine was contaminated, assuming a 1 out of 2500 mucous membrane exposure infection rate, that should equate to 400 infected individuals, who then have sex, give birth, donate blood, share needles. Forty years later 33 million infected individuals worldwide.
You know as well as I do that the polio virus was suspected to be contaminatied with monkey virus; however, I didn't think it was the OPV, but the IPV.
As to HIV, we had Kaposi sarcoma and overwhelming infections in Africa in the mid 1970's. However, there was a correlation of this with young men who worked inthe cities (I.e. with prostitutes) although I saw one 13 year old with Kaposis. The problem is that we didn't see widespread HIV type infections in the bush in the 1970's. Epidemiological evaluation can be done, However, knowing the social upheavals and wars (and increase in prostitution that goes along with these) the HIV seems more to parallel the increase in Syphillis and other venereal diseases, not the polio virus vaccination. These are different populations.
Fyi
Thanks for your insight and perspective. According to Hooper's very well-researched book, the experimental OPV, CHAT was suspected of being contaminated with Simian Immunodeficiency Virus from Chimps.
A recent announcement was made that frozen vaccine from the late 50's would be tested for SIV.
You might find this one of interest as well:
Circumcision urged as way to confine AIDS spread
The Chicago Tribune - November 19, 1999
Aamer Madhani, Tribune Staff Writer
Robert Bailey, a professor of epidemiology and anthropology at UIC, said Thursday he has completed research with Daniel Halperin, assistant adjunct professor at the University of California at San Francisco, that indicates African and Asian societies that traditionally do not perform male circumcision want the procedure available in their countries.
Several studies over the last 10 years have shown that male circumcision helps prevent HIV infection, but the international public health community has shied away from pushing the procedure in Africa and Asia over concerns that it would clash with cultural and religious mores in non-circumcising countries.
According to Bailey and Halperin's research, the risk of HIV infection is two to eight times higher for uncircumcised men.
They concluded in their research, which they published in the Nov. 20 edition of the journal The Lancet, that the international public health community should help make the procedure readily available in Asia and Africa.
"What a lot of the older men were telling me is that it's too late for them and their brothers to get circumcision," Bailey said. "But their sons and daughters are still sexually active, and they know it is safer to be circumcised."
Bailey and Halperin looked at 32 studies from eight countries in addition to doing scores of interviews with men and women in several Asian and African countries. He said many men told the researchers that they would be circumcised if they could.
In a Bailey's survey of 216 adults of the Luo tribe in Western Kenya, 60 percent of the men he talked to said they would prefer to be circumcised and 62 percent of the women he spoke with would prefer to have circumcised partners. But only 10 percent of the men the actually have had the procedure done.
Richard Burzynski, executive director of the International Council of AIDS Service Organization in Toronto, said that in a perfect world male circumcision would be readily available in these countries. But the cost of the procedure, which Bailey estimated at $5 per person, is not affordable in countries where the annual amount spent on health care averages $3 per person.
"I don't know if throwing money into circumcisions is what the world should be doing right now," Burzynski said. "While circumcision might reduce the risk of getting HIV, the procedure alone doesn't stop people from getting the virus."
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Copyright © 1999 - Chicago Tribune. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission. 60611 http://www.chicago.tribune.com
FYI
Great article...thanks for the post. Two comments:
I guess the FLOTUS won't tell us she was named for Dr.Hilary Koproski, as she tried to do with Sir Edmund Hillary, and..
Anyone want to start a pool as to when the first class action lawsuit is filed, aginst the US govt (our labs and researchers) and who knows which drug companies also? And probably they'll try to file it via the World Court...
I guess the FLOTUS won't tell us she was named for Dr.Hilary Koproski, as she tried to do with Sir Edmund Hillary
Maybe. Birds of a feather and all that.
Anyone want to start a pool as to when the first class action lawsuit is filed, aginst the US govt (our labs and researchers) and who knows which drug companies also? And probably they'll try to file it via the World Court...
I'll bet the suits are written and will be filed within minutes of the positive test results being released. This would bankrupt Wistar and the Belgian Government.
The chronology above starts around '51. Here's some chronology that is a little before that. Accurate?
1931 Cornelius Rhoads, a North American pathologist at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations in Puerto Rico, carries out an experiment on Puerto Ricans deliberately infecting them with cancer. Thirteen die. In a letter leaked to the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Rhoads wrote, "the Porto Ricans (sic) are lazy and degenerate. What the island needs is something to exterminate the entire population. I have done my best to further the extermination." The president of the PRNP brings the case to the press, and a legal investigation is initiated. The prosecutor exonerates Rhoads, calling him "a mentally ill person or a man with few scruples". Rhoads goes on in later years to direct the establishment of US Army chemical warfare labs in Maryland, Utah and Panama, for which he was awarded the Legion of Merit in 1945. (See 1945, Rhoads).
1931 Roosevelt endorses polio "immune serum", precursor to vaccines in 1950's.
1932 United States economy begins to show signs of recovery.
1932 German Kurt Lewin becomes director of the Tavistock Institute in London.
1932 The US Public Health Service initiates a study in Tuskegee, Alabama where black men are given syphillis. Four hundred men were unwittingly given the disease. No medical care was offered. The study ended when it was discovered in 1972, after 40 years. The office supervising this study was the predecessor of the Center for Disease Control unit now in charge of the AIDS program.
1932 Diptheria vaccines injure 171 and kill 1 in Charolles, France.
1932 Research (Young) indicates that neuritis is commonly precipitated following vaccination with anti-tetanus, anti-pneumococcal, and anti-meningitis serums.
1932 Third International Congress of Eugenics held in New York. Dr. Theodore Russell Robie of the Essex County Mental Hygiene Clinic in New Jersey presents "Selective Sterilzation for Race Culture", in which he called for the sterilzation of at least 14 million Americans who had received low IQ scores since World War I. Said Robie, "there are those who believe that our population has already attained a greater number than is necessary for the efficient running of the whole...". Conference financed by William Draper, a Thyssen Trust banker.
I love to add this on these threads ... the vaccine may have gotten things started (at Ground Zero for destruction of the most undesirable of dygenic races ... according to Planned Parenthood, Eugenics Quarterly, et al.) but I still think the Blood Trade more than helped motor things along.
Wallaby's excellent bit of research (with plenty of "real time" cites and science embedded within) … Is the Blood Trade Responsible for the Spread of the AIDS Epidemic?
Mid-day BUMP!
Scary stuff, but they do seem to be honing in on the real cause, too bad we can't put the Gennie back in the bottle.
You are right about the blood trade, untold numbers of people could have been spared, had it not been for the blood trade.
A bump and a drip!
It's not an accident that, as you say, Cornelius Rhoades, a population control bigot and eugenicist, would have been working for a Rockefeller organization. The Rockefellers were chiefly responsible for founding, funding and spreading abortion, birth control, sterilization, population control, eugenics, and the rest of the Culture of Death throughout our nation and the world. This effort began with John D. Rockefeller II, and was carried on and institutionalized by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller brothers, with their many affiliates and allies, many working in, or closely with, the federal government.
1932 The US Public Health Service initiates a study in Tuskegee, Alabama where black men are given syphillis. Four hundred men were unwittingly given the disease. No medical care was offered. The study ended when it was discovered in 1972, after 40 years. The office supervising this study was the predecessor of the Center for Disease Control unit now in charge of the AIDS program.
I question the fact that the men were deliberately infected, ND. As I understood it, the original purpose was a controlled study to determine whether the arsenic-containing drugs used at the time to treat syphilis, caused more morbidity than the disease did. Unfortunately, when penicillin was introduced in the late 40's, no one stopped the study and treated the subjects.
Do you have anything showing deliberate infection?
but I still think the Blood Trade more than helped motor things along.
No question about that. On a world-wide basis, HIV was and is a disease of heterosexuals and the dominant mode of transmission is through heterosexual contact or birth. Tainted blood and needles came along somewhat later.
bttt
Hey, BigM. I bought some Canadian bottled water this weekend. It's not going to make me talk like you or turn me into a socialist is it?
Oh, that's right. It's not from Quebec so I don't have to worry aboot the Socialist part. Look, it's starting already.
"Four hundred men were unwittingly given the disease. No medical care was offered."
I read it as not indicating who was "unwitting", the victims, or the experimenters. A bit ambiguous.
Why no care or treatment, but long term reviewing? Why all Black?
In concert with all of the other instances of infectations referenced, it starts looking to me like some purpose behind this, such as genocide. Rockefeller funded.
"with their many affiliates and allies, many working in, or closely with, the federal government."
And we all know they quit that, now. :-) It seems like a lot of "accidental mistakes" by our fine agencies that seem to aim toward helping nature purge the world of cultures and races that are deemed "Undesirable" by elitists, whether the elitists are Nazis, or Rockefellers.
Somehow, it just keeps getting away from them, and affecting a lot of good, innocent folks of all cultures and races.
But not to worry, they'll keep trying.
"so I don't have to worry aboot the Socialist part."
BigM needs to get some of that Natural Spring Water from the water treatment plant in Little Rock. Then he'll learn how to understand Southern.
But his neck will turn red.
Why no care or treatment, but long term reviewing?
As I understand it, and believe me I was closer to this study than you suspect, this was the control group to measure the effects of untreated syphilis on humans. It wasn't like medical science didn't already know that syphilis caused dementia, spinal cord damage, aneurysms and other ills.
Why all Black?
Availability, low visibility and low probability of exposure. What the researchers didn't anticipate was the Civil Rights Movement. Penicillin for syphilis was introduced in the late 1940's but withheld from this group in the interest of "science." Deplorable.
The infections were not deliberate as you stated. The region was one which had little movement in and out so it was easy to track the vict-- er subjects. Plus it was close to Tuskegee from whence the study was run.
I guess I was unintentionally oblique in my attempt to show a possible greater connection in all of this/these type matters.
What I had intended was to bring up the thought of some of the Master Race thinking (cleansing) that has been going on for many, many years. And that have elitest ties always in the background.
Like this tie ---"Leonard Dunn, a former Pine Bluff banker and now chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, served as HMA's president"
But it's always "just an accident".
In that part of the country, syphilis cases were common. I didn't want everyone to think that this abominable experiment was worse than it was. I believe that the men were recruited from public health clinics throughout the area and promised certain medical benefits if they participated in the study. What they actually received were physical examinations to carefully document the effects of untreated syphilis. No treatment.
An interesting story. I remembered reading about the blood samples from 1959 that were retroactively found to be HIV positve, but I didn't know the details. This article fills those in. Thanks.
In addition to Win Rockefeller, Jay Rockefeller seems to be in the loop on more of the "Help the Disadvantaged/Minority Children" programs (good hearted guys, huh?) ---
Despite record high immunization rates nationally, some communities, particularly those in public housing, lag behind in immunization rates and are at greater risk for disease outbreaks. Three federal agencies have launched a first-of-its-kind cooperative pilot program to boost immunization rates among children living in public housing. The new program will be piloted in Chicago, IL; Kansas City, MO; Philadelphia, PA; and Little Rock, AR.
According to the three agencies involved -- the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Corporation for National Service (CNS) -- the four cities will share an $800,000 federal grant to begin the new pilot program. Public health and public housing officials will work jointly to establish the programs in each city. Efforts will include improving information about immunizations for public housing residents, enlisting residents in designing outreach strategies and improving access to health services for those in public housing.
"These pilot programs represent the strong spirit of partnership in President Clinton's Childhood Immunization Initiative, which is working to ensure that all children have access to life-saving immunizations," said HHS Secretary Donna Shalala in announcing the program.
The Clinton administration's comprehensive Childhood Immunization Initiative aims to increase childhood immunization rates now and put in place a system to sustain high rates into the future. The initiative focuses on building community networks, improving immunization services for needy families in public health clinics, reducing vaccine costs for lower-income and uninsured families, improving systems for monitoring diseases and vaccination rates and improving vaccines and vaccine use.
"These programs will not only get youngsters immunized -- they will create jobs and training opportunities for adult residents," said HUD Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo who joined Shalala and CNS CEO Harris Wofford in making the pilot program announcement. "Residents have an important role to play in developing and implementing local strategies to raise immunization rates. These programs are part of the HUD's overall commitment to improve the quality of life in public housing."
Usually, children who have not received their recommended immunizations on time also receive less preventive health care. For example, compared with children whose immunizations are up-to-date, underimmunized children are less likely to have an adequate number of well-child visits to their health care provider. Children who are not up-to-date on their immunizations are also less likely to receive screening for anemia, lead and tuberculosis.
Research indicates a strong association between low socioeconomic status and underimmunization. Low parental education, transportation difficulties, multiple children in the family and single-parent families are often associated with underimmunization. These factors related to underimmunization often can be found among families living in public housing.
"Every child deserves a healthy start in life," said Wofford. "That's one of the five key goals of the recent Presidential Summit. AmeriCorps members and Senior Corps volunteers have a strong track record in getting things done in immunization and are delighted to put their experience to work in this critical initiative."
The nationwide immunization public service campaign unveiled by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala at the Every Child By Two annual conference last year contains a Spanish-language campaign, "Vacunelo, Esperar Es Lamentar." The theme coupled with PSA spots "Camara de Video (Video Cam)" and "La Lista (The List)" were developed to emphasize the importance to parents of ensuring that children are immunized against many life-threatening diseases. "La Lista" details a long list of childhood diseases prevented by immunizations; "Camara de Video" follows a Hispanic couple as they grieve over the loss of their daughter from one of those preventable diseases.
In addition to the PSAs, the campaign includes a handy reference brochure, a poster and
kits that were sent to Spanish-language radio and television stations and to individuals
involved in immunization efforts. For more information, contact
HMA Associates, (202)
342-0676.
The Children's Health Insurance Initiative would authorize $24 billion in new federal funds to improve coverage for uninsured children in families with income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. States could choose between using the funds to expand current Medicaid programs or receiving the funds through a block grant and using them to expand or purchase health insurance coverage for these children. State matching funds are required for both options.
During Senate Finance Committee mark-up of the bill, a proposal by Senators John Chafee
(R-RI) and Jay
Rockefeller (D-WV) was rejected.
Afternoon BUMP.
I know this info on Dunn and Rockefeller is old news to the blood trail readers, but it may spur some into questioning these "immunization" programs that seem to be aimed toward the "disadvantaged" minorities.
Anything that these purported "philantrophists" get behind could well have a more sinister ultimate goal.
Most of the prisoners at Cummins were black, so no basic safeguards for drawing blood were used. Most of the recipients of the products could have been considered by elitists to have genetic flaws.
Just another angle on this.
Buying water in a bottle! You Yanks sure have lots of money to throw around.
I'm gonna drill another well in my yard and when I hit water I'm gonna be rich!
Then he'll learn how to understand Southern
Hey I grew up watching the Clampets!
Put another way, every one of all known HIV-1 cases in Africa before 1981 came from places within 160km of those CHAT vaccination sites.
i notice that the article makes no attempt to quantify how meaningful or meaningless this statistic might be...thirty circles of 160 km radius contain a total area exceeding that of the congo...perhaps someone here who has read the book can let us know if the author gives sufficiently detailed figures (and analysis of those figures) that we might begin to judge the significance of this "headline" quote...
I've read the book and have a strong scientific background. Hooper has detailed scatter diagrams and maps. This one's very plausible, not just another kook idea. The only way we'll know for sure is when the last remaining CHAT vaccine is tested for HIV later this year or the first of next year.
frank - if you're new to FR or the Blood Trail, I have a reputation as a one-trick pony and that trick is scientific analysis and research of biomedical topics. Welcome.
frank - if you're new to FR or the Blood Trail, I have a reputation as a one-trick pony and that trick is scientific analysis and research of biomedical topics. Welcome.
excellent...i'll know which posts to check for subjects along this line...i've kicked around freep for a while, without following the blood trail closely, but my interest this time was sparked by the conrad allusion...
Hi CJ. Thanks for the alert to this story. Hooper's book is still on my reading list; I have read big chunks in order to comment on some of the threads.
I just found an article today in which a Nigerian doctor says that blood transfusions there are still not screened for HCV because of the expense. I don't have time to post it tonight, but perhaps I'll add it to one of the blood threads later.
Regards, W
You have read the book, CJ. Does it "follow the money"? I have trouble understanding who mounted this massive effort, who paid for the million shots of vaccine, and how did they follow up on the experiment? It seems to me unthinkable to give a million shots with an untested vaccine and not even try to learn what happened. The story here seems not to address these matters. I trust that the book gives a fuller account?
I trust that the book gives a fuller account?
In excruciating detail for 1300 pages.
The money was in the race for an alternative to the injectable Salk polio vaccine. The major characters were Albert Sabin who actually developed a workable vaccine and his competition Hilary Koprowski who was testing his experimental vaccine on unsuspecting Africans, Russians and Yugoslavs. Apparently, only the African batches are alleged to have been contaminated with SIV.
Aside from the billions an oral polio vaccine would bring in revenue, it also promised to bring the reward of a trip to Stockholm and some dynamite largesse.
I just found an article today in which a Nigerian doctor says that blood transfusions there are still not screened for HCV because of the expense.
Happens every day in underdeveloped countries. Check this one from October:Expert Urges Safer Blood Supply
> In excruciating detail for 1300 pages.
Hahahahaha!
How were those who got the vaccine tested afterward? (In less than 1300 pages, please.)
How were those who got the vaccine tested afterward?
There were periodic re-evals for acute polio infection and if identified, the specific serotype. One of the major problems as I recall was that this particular vaccine strain had an undesirable tendency to revert to virulence thereby causing polio, not preventing it. That was part of the reason that Sabin's vaccine was ultimately chosen over Koprowski's. No one had a clue about the HIV back then.
Awrot, awrot. I'm happy to take your word for it. But THIS << "They feed the children. They feed the infants. They supervised the whole thing and fed 256 000 in six weeks . . . the call to mass vaccination was made by . . . drums, drums, drums, drums. >> did not sound much like systematic medical testing.
Bongo, bongo, bongo, I don't want to leave the Congo, no, no, no, no, no, no! Bingle, bangle, bungle, I'm so happy in the jungle, I don't want to go....
Do you suppose it was the same reason we didn't stop the Rwanda slaughter ?
Good thing you are here, these guys have been abusing you. :-}
"Do you suppose it was the same reason we didn't stop the Rwanda slaughter ?"
Just a little harmless genocide to the Masters. Some folks actually BELIEVE the likes of the Rockefellers, Kennedy's, Ted Turner, etc. are benevolent. They don't move one penny into an apparent charity/foundation without it being geared toward a self interested goal.
FYI, some people up here are selling bottled water, which they took right out of the tap......... in their kitchen.
FYI, some people up here are selling bottled water, which they took right out of the tap......... in their kitchen.
Oh, my God. Call the mounties! Call the media. It's another scandal.
At least in Canada, the water will probably be safe. A few years back I took a trip to Mexico and our hotel had bottled water in the room. I drank it and used it to brush my teeth until one morning I saw the housekeepers refilling water bottles from the tap. I started brushing my teeth with beer after that. Interesting sensation.
At least in Canada, the water will probably be safe. A few years back I took a trip to Mexico and our hotel had bottled water in the room. I drank it and used it to brush my teeth until one morning I saw the housekeepers refilling water bottles from the tap. I started brushing my teeth with beer after that. Interesting sensation.
The water is certainly safer, but then I suspect yours is as well, one man had been selling tap water on a small scale, decided to go big, and actually applied for a license
to go into business selling tap water, I don't know what came of it, but in talking about it on the news, nobody thought there was anything wrong with it, as the water was safe........ hey, maybe I should apply for a license.
The mexico thing doesn't surprise me, and beer is good, some people prefer wine to brush their teeth with.
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