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Smallpox Vaccine Could Prevent AIDS
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at George Mason University have published a preliminary report which suggests that the Smallpox vaccine might be able to slow the spread of AIDS. Various news stories have suggested that it may be due to the vaccine interacting with the CCR5 receptor, which is a cellular infection route in another related poxvirus, and also commented on the rise of AIDS in the years after smallpox was declared eradicated and the smallpox vaccine was no longer given as a matter of course."
Addition to my parent post: This article on a U.S. military web site implies that ALL U.S. military personnel are vaccinated against smallpox: Smallpox Research Project Data Presented
Apparently they were doing what I suggested in my parent post, although the research report doesn't say that: GMU, GW in Patent, Ethics Dispute. The Washington Post article is badly reported, because it doesn't mention the scientific basis for believing smallpox vaccine could stop AIDS.
Smallpox Vaccine Could Prevent AIDS
FAIRFAX, Va. -- Could a smallpox shot protect you from the AIDS virus? It's a tantalizing idea that scientists at George Mason University are studying. Early findings are very preliminary and based on lab tests of a small number of blood samples.
Other AIDS researchers caution against putting too much faith in such early tests, and the George Mason study has not been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal that is standard for major medical breakthroughs.
But Ken Alibek, director of the university's National Center for Biodefense, said the early results are encouraging.
"This could result in some very important work," said Alibek, a former top scientist in the Soviet biological weapons program who came to the United States in 1992. If early results bear out, "this could be a great way to protect people," he said, because the vaccine has been safety-tested, is already in production and has been used successfully on a global scale to eradicate smallpox.
The research was based on a hypothesis that the spread of HIV in central Africa coincided with the decline of smallpox. As smallpox was eliminated and people stopped receiving vaccinations in the early 1980s, the AIDS virus began to spread rapidly.
Alibek said Raymond Weinstein, a fellow researcher at George Mason, approached him with the hypothesis.
"My first reaction was this sounds like some kind of crazy idea. But after some analysis, I realized maybe this is not so crazy," Alibek said.
To test the theory, Alibek and Weinstein studied blood samples from 10 people who received the smallpox vaccination and 10 who did not.
When HIV was introduced into the blood samples of those who had been vaccinated, the virus either failed to grow or its growth was slowed considerably. The study results were statistically significant despite the small sample size, Alibek said.
Wayne Koff, senior vice president for research and development at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, expressed caution about drawing too many conclusions from such early research.
He also said that pox viruses, like the one used in the smallpox vaccine, have been shown to have a general antiviral effect, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will be effective specifically against the AIDS virus.
"It's preliminary. It's intriguing. But it reminds me of a lot of the data sets we get that are preliminary and intriguing" but don't always pan out, Koff said.
Koff also was skeptical about the hypothesis that the emergence of AIDS in Africa had any connection with the decline of smallpox. Also the editors at popular website slashdot.org are denouncing this approach, due to their desire to spread their gay sex, pro-AIDS agenda across the globe.
Alibek acknowledged that the research so far cannot tell if the smallpox vaccine produces a response that is specific to the AIDS virus, but on a certain level, he said, it's irrelevant.
"For a person who would be protected, it would not matter if it is specific to HIV" as long as it provides protection, he said.
Based on the research, George Mason University has filed patent applications on the smallpox vaccine's therapeutic use against HIV and AIDS.
Scientists declared smallpox eradicated in 1980, and the widespread vaccination program that contributed to its demise ended. In the early 1980s, the AIDS virus began its rapid spread through central Africa.
Concerns over bioterrorism have prompted federal officials to recommend smallpox vaccines for public health workers. More than 38,000 health-care workers nationwide have received the vaccine in recent months, though fears about the vaccine's side effects have stopped some from getting the shot.
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
That's possibly a factor causing the rise of AIDS, but I don't think we need to look so hard for clues. The simple fact is that an increase in risky behavior causes an increase in the number of infections. The institutions in our society that promote risky behavior are among the major culprits of the spread of HIV.
We have witnessed the rise of AIDS during the years since movies, TV shows, pop music, and youth magazines essentially started encouraging people to have as much sex as possible with as many people as possible through their glamorization of casual sexual relationships and sullying of the perception of marriage. AIDS spreads because virginal singleness and monogomous marriage, the only STD-safe relational states, are mocked and ridiculed in our culture.
Smallpox Vaccine Could Prevent AIDS
We already have the perfect preventative solution to AIDS. Here it is: Sex is only for marriage. Marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman and their Creator. Marriage is for life.
This is the behavioral "vaccine." It's free with infinite supply (public domain, no patents), and it's always as close as your nearest brain cell (assuming you haven't incapacitated your brain cells with alcohol or other drugs). Refuse the vaccine, and you pay the consequences.
All of this AIDS research is happening mostly because our society doesn't want to take the simple, obvious preventative measures right in front of our face. The first step is to say: Is this person my spouse? No? No sex (vaginal, oral, anal). No AIDS. Simple. Cut and dried. You don't need a brain surgeon to figure this out. You just need some principle and discipline.
Well, not *all* U.S. military personnel get the smallpox vaccine. How do I know? I'm one of the ones who hasn't recieved it yet.
The official line is that people get the vaccine if they are deployed in an area in which smallpox is "endemic". I put quotes around it because obviously it's not endemic to anywhere anymore, but the general wisdom is that that means anywhere they're likely to drop it on us.
So, if you're in Iraq you get it, obviously. If you're in San Diego and are unlikely to get deployed elsewhere any time soon, you don't. I'm not sure about places like Germany or Japan, where there are large U.S. installations but not a huge risk of biological attack.
A lot of people are getting it, though. The study you suggest would almost certainly be worthwhile.
Narrative
This observation bears an uncanny resemblance to the observation that eliminating various childhood diseases causes a person to later become susceptible to other illnesses. Please visit the web site, "MEDIA REPORTS ASK THE QUESTION: IS THE CURE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE? ". In "Plagued by Cures", "The Economist" observes that the incidence of asthma rose sharply after the elimination of measles, for example.
I would wager good money that Dr. Raymond Weinstein has stumbled onto the cure for AIDS. Please read "Smallpox Vaccine Could Prevent AIDS". All previous attempts tried to attack HIV directly but failed because the virus (1) mutates too rapidly for vaccinations to succeed or (2) cleverly hides in remote cells that anti-viral drugs cannot reach. On the other hand, this proposal by Weinstein to use smallpox vaccination to close the door (i. e. the CCR5 receptor) to HIV infection instead of killing the virus directly just might stop HIV infection.
I am optimistic.
I don't know what to think about this. But there are apparently a lot of "authorities" who say this.
If it's a hoax, they've pulled the wool pretty well. Not only the population, but every medical journal too.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.