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."

Comments

All military vaccinated. No serious side-effects.

[Futurepower(R)]

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.

Dose of Common Sense Prevents All STDs

[superyooser]

Various news stories have ... also commented on the rise of AIDS in the years after smallpox ... was no longer given as a matter of course."

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.

Re:All military vaccinated. No serious side-effect

[thinmac]

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.

HIV-Smallpox Interplay =~ Asthma-Measles Interplay

[reporter]

The fascinating quote is below.

Based on the natural history or spread of HIV in Africa, Weinstein and Alibek proposed that declining immunological responses to smallpox -- due to the elimination of the disease and the discontinuation of immunizations -- may have been associated with the emergence of HIV.

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.

... from the desk of the reporter

Re:HIV+AIDS=Biggest Hoax of 20th century

[inertia187]

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.