The African polio vaccine-acquired immune deficiency syndrome connection
Reinhardt, V.; Roberts, A.
Medical Hypotheses 48(5): 367-374
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0306-9877 PMID: 9185120 DOI: 10.1016/s0306-9877(97)90030-xDocument Number: 268908
Seroepidemiological, clinical and molecular findings suggest that the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus human immunodeficiency virus-1 was introduced into the human species at the time (late 1950s) and in the geographic area (Zaire) in which millions of Africans were vaccinated with attenuated poliomyelitis virus strains that were produced in kidney tissue obtained from monkeys. Since monkeys not only harbor viruses that are remarkably similar to and genetically related to human immunodeficiency virus-1, but also served as tissue donors for the African polio vaccine, it is reasonable to suspect that a then non-detectable monkey virus with human-1-like properties was unknowingly co-cultured with the attenuated poliovirus virus and subsequently administered to the vaccinees. The possibility of such a polio vaccine-acquired immune deficiency syndrome connection is a reminder of the unpredictable danger of artificially crossing natural species-barriers in biomedical laboratories.