Did a Polio vaccine cause AIDS?

The poliomyelitis vaccine has a very dubious history. The very first attempts at a vaccine by Kolmer, and Brodie & Park, ended in disaster when the monkeys reacted differently from the humans. The "Cutter" incident in America infected 260 people with polio when the virus in the Salk vaccine had not been killed properly. The Salk vaccine also contained SV40, which was found to increase the likelihood of brain cancer, and in separate incidents was found to contain herpes virus, and Marburg virus, a deadly relative of Ebola. But by far the most staggering allegation to date is that an experimental polio vaccine was the origin of AIDS.

Dr. (now Prof.) Hilary Koprowski was one of the contenders, with Albert Sabin, to be the first scientist to produce a "safe" live polio vaccine. As opposed to Salk's killed vaccine, there would be a live polio virus in it, bred so it would confer immunity without disease. A live virus was meant to be more effective, cheaper and easier to manufacture and administrate, and less hazardous. Dr. Koprowski needed to prove his vaccine was the safest, and as Britain and America were dubious after the Cutter incident, the only countries willing to have a clinical trial of the vaccine were Poland, and the central African countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. The trial was started in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) in August 1958, and continued to April 1960(1). The vaccine was made from Rhesus macaque kidneys infected with the live virus, which was made into a gargle. This was given to 320 000 children, mainly infants. It is alleged that this vaccine contained SIV, which is related to HIV. Today Central Africa has a very high incidence of AIDS, so could SIV in the vaccine mutate into HIV?

SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus) is the primate version of HIV, and is thought to be its ancestor, due to its genetic similarity. This means that SIV behaves in much the same way as HIV. There are several types of SIV, and they are denoted according to the species of monkey they usually infect, e.g. the virus which infects chimpanzees is called SIVcpz. In their native species they remain dormant, having little effect, but when they cross the species barrier they can kill. The fact that HIV kills suggests it came from another species. Up until 12 years ago Rhesus macaques seemed not to be carriers of the disease. Then epidemics of macaques dying from a series of infections appeared in two primate centres in America: the cause, SIVmac. It is peculiar as it is not native to macaques; they were possibly infected while being held in one of the primate importer's buildings before delivery to the scientists; there monkeys are in cages on top of each other; urine and faeces dripped from cage to cage. Here it would be quite possible for SIV to jump species.

At the time of the clinical trial nobody had heard of AIDS, HIV or SIV. But SIV is thousands of years old. The vivisection lobby would have us believe that transport conditions have got better, not worse, so transport conditions in the late 1950s would be no better than they are now. Therefore Dr. Koprowski's macaques could have had SIV. Although SIV is not present in the kidneys, it is present in the blood, and it would be extremely difficult to produce a vaccine from kidneys without blood contamination. The vaccine was not sterilised, as any such measures would kill off the live polio virus, and the only tests the vaccine underwent was a short term one for potency; such a test would not reveal SIV infection. Also SIV infection has a long incubation period, and with macaques' tendency to hide signs of ill health, any cases of SIV could go unnoticed.

The vaccine was a liquid, either gargled, or in infants, squirted into the back of the throat, so it was involuntarily swallowed. If it wasn't swallowed, a second dose was given. Children under 30 days had the dose dropped into their mouths using a dropper. In the Lubeck disaster, where the BCG virus and deadly human TB virus were accidentally mixed in the production of the BCG vaccine, a number of infants had TB infection in their lungs and middle ear, which was unusual for an oral vaccine. On further enquiry, it was found that if an infant had not swallowed the vaccine, its nose would be held, forcing it to swallow. Such a procedure led to some of the liquid being inhaled, with liquid remaining in the lungs and middle ear(2). HIV can be transmitted several ways: through blood, from mother-to-child, sexually transmitted, or through virus contacting the mucous membranes. If liquid was inhaled, either through the nose being held, if such a procedure was used, or through liquid going down the windpipe, then virus could have been left on the trachea, which connects the two bronchi which go to each lung. The trachea contains a mucous membrane, as does the larynx and epiglottis, both parts of the throat the liquid could have came into contact with if inhaled, so, if SIV existed in the vaccine it could have been transmitted to humans.

Retroviruses, the family HIV and SIV come from, have a rapid rate of mutation. What would take an animal millions of years would take a retrovirus a decade or two. It is quite possible that SIVmac mutated into HIV.

However, the theory does contain lot's of "if"s and "maybe"s, on the balance of probabilities it is unlikely this was the origin of AIDS. Add to that the fact that SIVcpz is more closely related to HIV-1 than SIVmac, and that the first known AIDS case, that of a Manchester sailor, who died in 1959, and you may wish to discard the theory completely(3). But here, yet again, is another interesting aspect. SIVmac is more closely related to HIV-2 than HIV-1 is(4). The sailor most probably died from HIV-1, not -2. Also bear in mind HIV-2 occurs mainly in west Africa. Another point is, did the Manchester sailor visit Central Africa? The doctors caring for the sailor said "While in the navy (1955-57) he had travelled abroad"(5), although in another article one of the doctors said "there is no evidence that he had been to Africa"(6), conversely there is no evidence to suggest he had not visited Africa. Whether he visited the Congo or not is a mystery, but the possibility is there.

This is not a theory thought up by anti-vivisectionists and desperate journalists, the theory was first suggested by B. F. Elswood, and R. B. Stricker, of the University of California, and of the California Pacific Medical Centre, respectively(7). Ron Derosiers of the New England Regional Primate Research Centre once said that he "never heard a good reason why it's not plausible"(8). This theory has had numerous articles wrote on it from Science to Research in Virology. This theory was suggested out of concern, not to prove a point or to provide a story.

If AIDS didn't originate from the vaccination how did it originate? If for example, Africans contracted it from the consumption of monkey meat, as is the popular theory, they would have presumably caught it hundreds of years ago: why would their eating habits change? With slavery and colonization centuries ago surely AIDS would be in the USA by the time of the Civil War.

From an anti-vivisection point of view it does not necessarily matter whether the origin of AIDS was from the vaccine. What matters is that it could have happened. Vivisectionist always accuse us of being backward looking, dragging up old drug and vaccine disasters. But if you do not know the mistakes of the past, you will repeat them in the future. Nobody knew of AIDS in the late 50s. In 40 years time, will we hear the vivisectors saying "we couldn't have known that pigs carried the disease. We didn't even know it existed. That's why pigs were used in organ transplants."? How can you find the unlooked for?

Was AIDS from the polio vaccine? Probably not, but before you consign this to the huge list of near-misses in vivisection-based medicine, let me tell you one more fact. A group of 12 scientists in 1986 collected together 1213 samples of plasma, taken as far back as 1959. The only plasma which could be confirmed to have "HTLV-III [i.e. HIV] or a closely related virus"(9) was one from Leopoldville, in 1959.

REFERENCES

(1) Vaccination with the CHAT Strain of Type 1 Attenuated Poliomyelitis Virus in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, Andre Lebrun, Jacques Cerf, Henry M. Gelfand, Ghislain Courtois, Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, 1960, vol. 22, p.203.

(2) "The Hazards of Immunization", Sir G. Wilson.

(3) HIV infection in Manchester, 1959, Gerald Corbitt, Andrew S. Bailey, George Williams, Lancet, July 7, 1990, p.51.

(4) Where did the AIDS virus come from?, Myra McClure, New Scientist, June 30, 1990, p.54.

(5) AIDS in 1959?, George Williams, T. B. Stretton & J. C. Leonard, Lancet, Nov. 12, 1983, p.1136.

(6) "Earliest" AIDS case may offer clues to virus, Phyllida Brown, New Scientist, July 14, 1990, p.34.

(7) Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS, B. F. Elswood and R. B. Stricker, Research in Virology, 1993, v.144, p.175.

(8) Debate on AIDS Origin: Rolling Stone Weighs In, Jon Cohen, Science, March 20, 1992, p.15050.

(9) Evidence For Human Infection With An HTLV III/LAV-Like Virus In Central Africa, 1959, A. J. Nahmias, J. Weiss, X. Yao, F. Lee, et. al., Lancet, May 31, 1986, p.1279.

This is to clarify that E.A.R., nor any of its members, is not responsible for this article. I would like to stress that it is not suggested that Dr. Koprowski at any time was negligant, the point of the article is that a scientist using the available knowledge of the time, nearly caused the origin of AIDS. If the parties involved beleive this article is unfair, please click here.