User:SmithBlue/AIDSOPVuniverse

According to the oral polio vaccine (OPV) AIDS hypothesis, the AIDS pandemic originated from live polio vaccines prepared in chimpanzee tissue cultures and then administered to up to one million Africans between 1957 and 1960 in experimental mass vaccination campaigns. "Over 87% of all known samples of HIV-1 from Africa from 1980 or earlier come from towns where CHAT was fed. And 100% come from places within 100 miles of CHAT vaccination sites" Hooper E. The River: a journey back to the source of HIV and AIDS. The Penguin Press September 1999. pg748

The proponents of the hypothesis, including journalist Edward Hooper, claim that the experimental oral vaccine, CHAT-1, was contaminated with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a group of viruses endemic to African primates and widely accepted as the origin of HIV.

The hypothesis has been repeatedly restated# as new information comes forward. It has been critcised for these changes#.

The current form of the hypothesis# as expressed by Hooper is that chimpanzees from the region found to be the source of HIV were traded some 1000 miles along rivers and then kept in group cages# at Lindi Camp near Stanleyville where they infected other captive chimps. Sera from this group of infected chimps was used to amplify the polio vaccine.# The contaminated vaccine was then used on some large number(500,000 to "millions"#) of Africans in the area around KKKK##. Some of these people became infected with the HIV.

The OPV AIDS hypothesis is considered controversial and does not enjoy mainstream scientific support, owing to a plethora of scientific evidence which contradicts its basic claims.
 * REMOVE ANY FOLLOWING SOURCES THAT ADDRESS PRIOR VERSIONS OF HYPOTHESIS*****

Background: Polio vaccines
Two vaccines are used throughout the world to combat polio. The first polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk, is an inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), consisting of a mixture of three wild, virulent strains of poliovirus, grown in a type of monkey kidney tissue culture (Vero cell line), and made noninfectious by Formalin treatment. The second vaccine, an oral polio vaccine (OPV), is a live-attenuated vaccine, produced by the passage of the virus through non-human cells at a sub-physiological temperature. The passage of virus produces mutations within the viral genome, and hinders the virus's ability to infect nervous tissue.

Both vaccines have been used for decades to induce immunity to polio, and to stop the spread of the infection. However, OPV has several advantages; because the vaccine is introduced in the gastrointestinal tract, the primary site of poliovirus infection and replication, it closely mimics a natural infection. OPV also provides long lasting immunity, and stimulates the production of polio neutralizing antibodies in the pharynx and gut. Hence, OPV not only prevents paralytic poliomyelitis, but also, when given in sufficient doses, can abort a threatening epidemic. Other benefits of OPV include ease of administration, low cost and suitability for mass vaccination campaigns.

Shortly before the Chat trails of 1958-1960 began, an expert committee at the World Health Organization (WHO) published the first set of guidelines to cover the development, manufacture, testing, and administration of polio vaccines; this official technical report of 1958 covered both the killed-virus (injected) and attenuated (oral) vaccine varieties. In the WHO report, the expert panel warned potential vaccine manufacturers of contaminating viruses in monkey tissues from which vaccines might be made, pointing out that the pathogens could be subtle due to viral latency, "One of the incidental findings ... and one which has great interest in relation to the production of any vaccines using viruses from animal or human sources, is that many viruses were found to be latent in asymptomatic monkeys used for production of kidney-tissue cultures. At least 28 distinct agents have now been identified, which are either occasional contaminants of tissue cultures of monkey tissues or are present in the living animal and are activated by the process of cultivation of kidney cells." (p. 42)

CHAT vaccine
Oral polio vaccines were developed by several groups, one of which was lead by Albert Sabin. Another group, led by Hilary Koprowski, developed its own attenuated vaccine strains. In 1952 Koprowski developed the TN strain at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, later identified as type 2 poliovirus. A type 1 strain, called SM, was reported in 1954. A less virulent version of the SM strain, called “CHAT”, was reported by Koprowski in 1957. In 1958, the National Institutes of Health created a special committee on live polio vaccines. The various vaccines were carefully evaluated for their ability to induce immunity to polio while retaining a low incidence of neuropathogenicity in monkeys. Based on these results, the Koprowski strains were eliminated and the Sabin strains were chosen for worldwide distribution.

Between 1957 and 1960, however, Koprowski would continue to administer his vaccine around the world. In Africa, the vaccines were administered to roughly one million people in the Belgian territories, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. No one is certain how many people were vaccinated in the Africa trials as few records remain -- but in 1960, Koprowski wrote in the British Medical Journal, "The Belgian Congo trials have enlarged considerably and ... more vaccination campaigns organized in several provinces of the Belgian Congo are raising the number of vaccinated individuals into the millions."(p. 90)

Koprowski and his group also published a series of detailed reports on the vaccination of 76,000 children under the age of 5 (and European adults) in the area of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) in Belgian Congo from 1958-1960; these reports begin with an overview, next a review of safety and efficacy, then a 21-month follow-up and final report. An epidemic of polio erupted in Leopoldville two months after the vaccination campaign began and continued at low levels for at least the next 19 months; many dozens of children who had been vaccinated developed paralytic polio. During this same period, Koprowski immunized 40,000 children in Germany and more than seven million in Poland with his attenuated strains.

In the 1950s, before dangers inherent to the process were well controlled, seed stocks of vaccines were occasionally transported to distant regions, then standard tissue culture methods. were used to amplify the virus at local production facilities, in order to produce actual doses. It has been reported that specific biologic products, chiefly kidney cells for cultures and blood serum for media, were sometimes harvested from local primates and used in the production process, if wild or captive populations of appropriate species were available. In South Africa, African green monkey tissue was used to amplify the Sabin vaccine. In French West Africa and Equatorial Africa, baboons were used to amplify a vaccine from the Pasteur Institute. In Poland, the CHAT vaccine was amplified using Asian macaques.

experimental mass vaccination campaigns. The specific populations were the first in the world to experience HIV-1 infections and AIDS some five years later.

Albert Sabin, a member of the WHO expert committee and the developer of the oral polio vaccine used today, found a contaminating virus in a large lot of the CHAT vaccine. In the British Medical Journal of 14 March 1959, Sabin wrote, "The efficacy of this method was emphasized when similar tests on the large lot of Koprowski's type 1 "Chat" vaccine used in the Belgian Congo trials (Courtois et al., 1958) revealed the presence of an unidentified, non-poliomyelitis cytopathogenic virus up to a 10-2 dilution of the culture fluid, but not in the higher dilutions." (p. 678)

Developments of hypothesis
San Antonio physician Eva Lee Snead was the first person to propose the hypothesis that AIDS could have crossed to humans via an infected polio vaccine. However she also argued, incorrectly that SV-40 might be a precursor to HIV.

In May 1987 Louis Pascal heard a radio broadcast by Dr. Snead explaining her hypothesis. Based on information in medical journals published in the 1950s and 1960s, and the information about the the first cases of HIV infection, he concluded that Dr. Hilary Koprowski's CHAT Type 1 vaccine administered in Belgian Congo between 1957 and 1960 was a likely source. . Pascal's paper about the hypothesis was submitted to several journals, but rejected by all. In their reply Nature stated that: "while the theory cannot be ruled out, it does not seem readily to fit the epidemiology of AIDS".

In the same year Blaine Elswood, an AIDS treatment activist who had developed similar ideas, contacted the journalist Tom Curtis about a "bombshell story." Curtis investigated the story and published an article in Rolling Stone 1992. . After that Dr. Koprowski sued the Rolling Stone and Tom Curtis for defamation, the magazine published a clarification which praised Dr. Koprowski and absolved him from any blame for the introduction of AIDS to the human population: "we never wished to suggest that it has been scientifically proven that Koprowski is the father of AIDS." The clarification also reiterated that the OPV hypothesis was "one of several disputed and unproven theories". Rolling Stone had to pay $US 1 in damages whilst incurring around $US 500,000 in legal fees for its own defense, while the legal action cost Dr Koprowski around $US 300,000. A contemporaneous defamation suit that Dr. Koprowski brought against the Associated Press was settled several years later but the terms are undisclosed.

A few scientists, notably the biologist W.D. Hamilton thought the hypothesis required serious investigation, but they received little support from the scientific community. Hamilton wrote a letter to Science in 1994 supporting Pascal and Curtis, but it was rejected by the editors.

Journalist Edward Hooper, who had already begun to investigate the origin of AIDS when the OPV hypothesis was first put forward gradually became convinced of its truth. After nine years of investigations, he detailed the hypothesis and evidence in his 1999 book, The River. In 2004, the Origin of Aids, a TV documentary strongly supportive of the OPV hypothesis, appeared on television stations globally.



In 2003, Edward Hooper and colleagues claimed to uncover testimony supporting the OPV hypothesis. Jacques Kanyama, a virology technician at the lab responsible for testing the CHAT vaccine and performing the initial set of vaccinations, alleged that batches of CHAT had been produced on site by Paul Osterrieth. Philip Elebe, a microbiology technician, claimed that tissue cultures were being produced from Lindi chimpanzees. Osterrieth disputes these claims, saying that no vaccine was prepared locally and that only the CHAT vaccine from America was used.

1989
Y. Ohta, et al., No Evidence for the Contamination of Live Oral Poliomyelitis Vaccines with Simian Immunodeficiency Virus," Published in AIDS, 3: 183-4, 1989 WHY IS OHATA TESTING FOR CONTAMINATED OPV?

Pascal L., What happens When Science Goes Bad. University of Wollongong Science and Technology working paper No  9, December 1991, p31. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Pascal91.html

1991
RC Bohannon, et al., Journal of Virology, 65: 5663-72, 1991 ??????????????? first reported case of another monkey immunodeficiency virus in an AIDS patient

ANOTHER?

1992
Raanan Gillon, "A startling 19,000-word thesis on the origin of AIDS: should the JME have published it?", Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 18, 1992, pp. 3-4. The editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics summarises Pascal's argument, explains why JME rejected it, and notes its importance and availability. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/JME92.html

March
Tom Curtis, "The origin of AIDS", Rolling Stone, Issue 626, 19 March 1992, pp. 54-59, 61, 106, 108. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Curtis92.html

August
Hilary Koprowski, "AIDS and the polio vaccine" (letter), Science, vol. 257, 21 August 1992, pp. 1024, 1026-1027; correction, 11 September 1992, p. 1463. This is a reply to Tom Curtis's article in Rolling Stone and is one of the few published critiques of the theory. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Koprowski92.html

September
Tom Curtis, unpublished letter to Science, 30 September 1992. This letter rejected by Science was a response to Koprowski's letter in Science attacking the polio-vaccine theory. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Curtis92ul.html

1993
B. F. Elswood and R. B. Stricker, "Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS", Research in Virology, vol. 144, 1993, pp. 175-177. A letter to the editor presenting the theory plus a critical reply from the editorial board. Blaine Elswood can be contacted at Blaine.Elswood@snow.edu. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Elswood93.html

October
Brian Martin, "Peer review and the origin of AIDS -- a case study in rejected ideas", BioScience, vol. 43, no. 9, October 1993, pp. 624-627. An account of the theory and the response to it. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/93bs.html

1994
Blaine F. Elswood and Raphael B. Stricker, "Polio vaccines and the origins of AIDS", Medical Hypotheses, vol. 42, 1994, pp. 347-354 and Correspondence, vol. 44, 1995, p. 226. This is the first major paper in the scientific literature presenting the theory. Blaine Elswood can be contacted at Blaine.Elswood@snow.edu. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Elswood94.html

January
W. D. Hamilton, unpublished letter to Science, 27 January 1994. Hamilton attempted to publish a letter in Science responding to Koprowski's 1992 letter. Included here is both the letter itself and Hamilton's correspondence with Science. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hamilton94

Brian Martin, "Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS: the career of a threatening idea", Townsend Letter for Doctors, #126, January 1994, pp. 97-100. An account of the theory and its implications. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/94tld.html

Lancet. 1994 Jan 1;343 (8888):52-3 7905059 HIV contamination of poliovaccines. [My paper] R B Stricker, B F Elswood

JUNE
Med Hypotheses. 1994 Jun ;42 (6):347-54 7935079 Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS. [My paper] B F Elswood, R B Stricker

1996
Julian Cribb, The White Death (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1996) http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Cribb96.pdf

Brian Martin, "Sticking a needle into science: the case of polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS", Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 2, May 1996, pp. 245-276. A personal account of how the author as a social scientist intervened in the debate over the polio-vaccine-AIDS theory. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/96sss2.html

1997
Med Hypotheses. 1997 Feb ;48 (2):193 9076703 [Cited: 1] Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS: an update. [My paper] R B Stricker, B F Elswood

1998
Brian Martin, "Political refutation of a scientific theory: the case of polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS", Health Care Analysis, Vol. 6, 1998, pp. 175-179. How legal action and editorial decisions mean that the published record gives the misleading impression that the polio-vaccine-AIDS theory has been refuted. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/98hca.html

1999
Omar Bagasra, HIV and Molecular Immunity: Prospects for the AIDS Vaccine (Natick, MA: Biotechniques Books, 1999)The oldest confirmed sample of human tissue that shows the presence of HIV-1 is an archival sample of plasma collected from an anonymous donor in the city of Leopoldville, Belgian Congo (now Kinshasa) in 1959. The reporting authors stated in 1999, "Multiple phylogenetic analyses not only authenticate this case as the oldest known HIV-1 infection, but also place its viral sequence near the ancestral node of subtypes B and D in the major group, indicating that these HIV-1 subtypes, and perhaps all major-group viruses, may have evolved from a single introduction into the African population not long before 1959." The OPV AIDS hypothesis has been criticized by members of the scientific and medical community as being unfounded, unlikely or inconsistent with HIV epidemiology. In October 1992, the journal Science ran a story titled "Panel Nixes Congo Vaccine as AIDS source," describing the findings of an independent panel which found each proposed step in the OPV-AIDS hypothesis "problematic". The panel also noted that at least one case of HIV/AIDS was described prior to the OPV trial, (this claim, while scientifically accepted at the time, was later found to be factually incorrect. The error was caused by laboratry contamination. ) and concluded that:

2000
Edward Hooper, The River: A Journey Back to the Source of HIV and AIDS (Harmondsworth: Penguin; Boston: Little, Brown, 1999; revised edition, Penguin, 2000).

Royal Society Discussion Meeting (and subsequent events) Origins of HIV and the AIDS Epidemic, London, 11-12 September 2000 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/rs/index.html (published as "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B, volume 356, 29 June 2001")

2001
Editorial "The new data may not convince the hardened conspiracy theorist..."

Stanley A. Plotkin, "CHAT oral polio vaccine was not the source of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Group M for humans", Clinical Infectious Diseases, Vol. 32, 2001, pp. 1068-1984. A detailed rebuttal of the claims in Edward Hooper's The River. This is almost the same paper as published in the Royal Society meeting proceedings. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/journal/issues/v32n7/001306/001306.html

Salemi, M., K. Strimmer, W. W. Hall, M. Duffy, E. Delaporte, S. Mboup, M. Peeters, and A. M. Vandamme. 2001. Dating the common ancestor of SIVcpz and HIV-1 group M and the origin of HIV-1 subtypes using a new method to uncover clock-like molecular evolution. FASEB J. 15:276-278. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=11156935

June
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B, volume 356, 29 June 2001 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/rs/papers/index.html

September
Lincei meeting Origin of HIV and Emerging Persistent Viruses, Rome, 28-29 September 2001 (Published as Atti dei Convegni Lincei, 2003, Vol. 187, ISBN 88-218-0885-8)

In 2001, three articles published in Nature examined various aspects of the OPV-AIDS hypothesis, as did an article published in Science. In every case, the studies' findings argued strongly against any link between the polio vaccine and AIDS. An accompanying editorial in Nature concluded:

2002
Robin Weiss, "Reflections on the origin of human immunodeficiency viruses", AIDS & Hepatitis Digest, January 2002. Critical commentary on the polio-vaccine theory. Robin Weiss can be contacted at . http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Weiss02.pdf

Lukashov, V.V. and J. Goudsmit. 2002. "Recent Evolutionary History of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Subtype B: Reconstruction of Epidemic Onset Based on Sequence Distances to the Common Ancestor." Journal of Molecular Evolution, 54, 680-691." MARTIN SAYS THIS DISPUTES SOME OF THE SCIENCE OF PHYLOGENY

2003
Lincei meeting papers Origin of HIV and Emerging Persistent Viruses, Rome, 28-29 September 2001 Published as Atti dei Convegni Lincei, 2003, Vol. 187, ISBN 88-218-0885-8


 * Maria Luisa Bozzi, "Truth and science: Bill Hamilton's legacy", pp. 21-26. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Bozzi03.pdf


 * Edward Hooper, "Dephlogistication, Imperial Display, Apes, Angels, and the Return of Monsieur Émile Zola", pp. 27-230. This massive paper is a response to criticisms of The River, plus new evidence. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper03/Hooper03.pdf
 * Review of Hooper's paper by Lawrence Hammar in Papua New Guinea Medical Journal, 2004 Papua New Guinea Medical Journal, 2004 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hammar04.pdf


 * Mikkel H. Schierup and Roald Forsberg, "Recombination and phylogenetic analysis of HIV-1" (in pdf), pp. 231-245. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Schierup03.pdf


 * R A Weiss, "Concluding remarks: emerging persistent infections, family heirlooms and new acquisitions" (in pdf), pp. 305-314. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Weiss03.pdf

2004
Stanley A. Plotkin, "Chimpanzees and journalists" (editorial), Vaccine, Vol. 22, 2004, pp. 1829-1830. Introduction to Osterrieth's article. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Plotkin04.pdf

Paul Osterrieth, "Oral polio vaccine: fact versus fiction", Vaccine, Vol. 22, 2004, pp. 1831-1835. Denial of Hooper's claims about production of polio vaccine in Africa.

Feb- March
Edward Hooper, "The dirty side of the origin-of-AIDS debate": a series of commentaries, February-March 2004.

* The latest scientific evidence supports the OPV theory * As far as is known, modern polio vaccines are safe * Robin Weiss, professor of virology, doctor of spin * Could an ancient sample of HIV-1 be faked? Stanley A. Plotkin, "Chimpanzees and journalists" (editorial), Vaccine, Vol. 22, 2004, pp. 1829-1830. Introduction to Osterrieth's article. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Plotkin04.pdf

Paul Osterrieth, "Oral polio vaccine: fact versus fiction", Vaccine, Vol. 22, 2004, pp. 1831-1835. Denial of Hooper's claims about production of polio vaccine in Africa. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Osterrieth04.pdf

April
Michael Worobey et al., "Contaminated polio vaccine theory refuted", Nature, Vol. 428, 22 April 2004, p. 820. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Worobey04.pdf

Edward Hooper, "Contaminated polio vaccine theory not refuted", April 2004. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/Hooper04refute.html


 * Worobey et al. supplementary information and map. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Worobey04s.doc

http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Worobey04m.jpeg Hooper's comments. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/Hooper04refutea.html Hooper gives further comments, and a short version of further comments. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/Hooper04refuteb.html http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/Hooper04refutec.html

Oct-Nov
Edward Hooper, commentaries, October-November 2004 * The annexing of the Stanleyville samples: potential 'fossil evidence' of ancient HIV-1 falls into the wrong hands. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/BM19.html * Untruths, misrepresentations and spin: the dubious methods and tactics used by Stanley Plotkin's group in the "Origins of AIDS" debate. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/BM6_2.html * Dr Hilary Koprowski - The Man of Many Ideas. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/BM14.html * The allegation that The River has damaged modern attempts to eradicate polio: more fabrications by doctors Koprowski and Plotkin. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/BM15.html * The new round of legal threats by doctors Koprowski and Plotkin. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/BM17.html * Plotkin's chums (1): Eminent scientists sign their names to falsehoods, in a bid to protect Stanley Plotkin and Hilary Koprowski. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper04/BM18.html

2005
Brian Martin, "The Politics of a Scientific Meeting: the Origin-of-AIDS Debate at the Royal Society", Politics and the Life Sciences, Vol. 20, No. 2, September 2001, pp. 119-130 [published 2005]. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/05pls.html http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/05pls.pdf

Narrow Roads of Gene Land: The Collected Papers of W. D. Hamilton, Volume 3: Last Words, edited by Mark Ridley, Oxford University Press. November 2005 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hamilton05.pdf

==2006

Feb-Aug
Edward Hooper, commentaries, February-August 2006 * Three warnings about potential future malpractice by members of "the bushmeat group", 13 August 2006 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper06/Hooper06warnings.html * Science magazine rejects yet another submission that opposes the bushmeat hypothesis of AIDS origin, 27 July 2006 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper06/Hooper06Holly.html * "The Hollywooding of Science". Beatrice Hahn's latest SIV sequences from Cameroonian chimps: an alternative interpretation, 5 August 2006 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper06/Hooper06Holly.html * How to View the "Origins of AIDS" Documentary, 30 June 2006 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper06/Hooper06film.html * The Emperor's New Clothes: Beatrice Hahn and The Latest Mumbo Jumbo, 26 May 2006 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper06/Hooper06Hahn.html * New claims from Paul Sharp - but has the source of HIV-1 really been located? February 2006. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper06/Hooper06Sharp.pdf

The African AIDS Epidemic: A History Iliffe, John (Author). ISBN: 0821416898 Publisher: Ohio University Press Published: 2006-03

2006
Van Heuverswyn F et al. (2006) "Human immunodeficiency viruses: SIV infection in wild gorillas," Nature 444: 164 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7116/full/444164a.html

2007
Brian Martin, "Contested testimony in scientific disputes: the case of the origins of AIDS",The Skeptic, Vol. 13, No. 3, 2007, pp. 52-58.

Ongoing claims by proponents of the OPV-AIDS hypothesis that Kisangani chimpanzees were, indirectly, the true source of HIV-1 were again addressed in a 2004 study published in Nature. Here, the authors found that while SIV was present in chimpazees in the area, the strain of SIV infecting these chimpanzees was phylogenetically distinct from all strains of HIV, providing direct evidence that these chimps were not the source of HIV in humans.

Current oral polio-vaccine campaign in Africa
It should be noted that the debate over the OPV-AIDS hypothesis is in the context of a longstanding effort of the WHO and UN to achieve poliomyelitis eradication worldwide through use of the oral polio vaccine of Albert Sabin, which is thought to be safe and effective by virtually all medical authorities. If this long-term public-health goal could be achieved, poliomyelitis would join smallpox to become the second infectious disease of humans to be eradicated everywhere, which should make subsequent polio vaccinations unnecessary.

By 2003, cases of poliomyelitis had been reduced to just a small number in isolated regions of West Africa, with sporadic cases elsewhere. However, the disease has since resurged in Nigeria and in several other nations of Africa, which epidemiologists trace to refusals by certain local populations to allow their children to be administered the Sabin oral vaccine.

The expressed concerns of local populations often relate to feared sterility the vaccine might induce in young women, which seems irrational to most -- and some public-health workers argue that debate over the OPV-AIDS hypothesis have fueled these sorts of fears among contemporary Africans. Since 2003, these fears have spread among some in the Muslim community, and now polio has also resurged in areas of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh as well. Other scientists, such as the late W.D. Hamilton of Oxford University, have argued that failures to adequately address medical mistakes of the past will only lead to similar failures in the future.