Did a KS virus originate from laboratory primate viruses?

A decade before AIDS, monkey cancer-causing viruses were adapted to human cells. In 1967 Herpesvirus saimiri, a harmless squirrel monkey virus closely related to the new KS herpes virus, was forced into different animals, such as the owl monkey, marmosets and rabbits, where it produced cancer in the form of malignant lymphoma. Lymphoma is a common cancer in AIDS patients; and there is also a close relationship between KS and lymphoma.

In 1971 Dharam V Ablashi of the NCI transferred H. saimiri into various cell lines of human origin. (1971;35). Attempts were made "to find a suitable method for the large-scale production of high-titer Herpesvirus saimiri" (1973;264). By 1976 it was also learned that H.saimiri was contagious and spread by "contact transmission" between squirrel and owl monkeys in the laboratory.

The Virus Cancer Program and secret human experimentation

A 1972 VCP Report (p. 262) emphatically states: "Since man will not be used as an experimental recipient, it is necessary to gain proof of oncogenicity by other means." How that "proof" would be obtained was never made clear.

With its close ties to military biowarfare research it is conceivable that the VCP undertook covert human testing of suspected cancer-causing viruses. The U.S. military has a long history of secret human experimentation on unsuspecting citizens. (Google: secret human experimentation + military). Were gay men used as guinea pigs to test the effects of these viruses?

In 1977 Merck and Co, Inc. made most of the experimental hepatitis B vaccine used in gays the following year. Merck's role in the VCP was "to conduct investigations designed to develop vaccines or other agents effective for the prophylaxis and therapy for human neoplasia (cancer) of suspected viral etiology" (1972 report; p 139).

Merck also wanted to develop an anti-herpes virus vaccine. Merck researchers stated: "Since live attenuated or killed virus vaccines for potentially oncogenic viruses would not be acceptable for human use due to the danger of transfer of functional genetic material, this project was initiated to determine whether vaccines to purified viral antigens acceptable for use in humans were of practical value."

(1977;160) This proposed "purified" herpes vaccine was similar in type to the experimental "purified" hepatitis B vaccine injected into gays the following year in 1978.

"Gay cancer" and man-made laboratory "helper viruses"

The herpes KS virus is a "helper virus" which promotes cancer, particularly when combined with HIV. In the decade before AIDS it was discovered that some cancer-causing animal sarcoma viruses could not produce cancer unless a "helper virus" was present. For example, certain chicken, cat and mouse sarcoma viruses were "defective" in their ability to induce experimental cancer. But when a "helper" leukemia virus was added to the mix, the sarcoma virus was able to induce cancer.

By 1977, the year the experimental hepatitis B vaccine was being developed by Merck for use in gays , scientists in the VCP aimed "to determine the oncogenic [cancer-causing] potential of putative human viruses" and "to begin viral vaccine (conventional or other) testing and immunization programs" (1977 VCP Report; p32).

The exact methods for accomplishing this were not stated. However, it is now obvious that the introduction of two new viruses into gay men conveniently accomplished this goal of VCP scientists: namely, to prove that immunosuppressive and cancer-causing retroviruses - with or without herpes KS-like "helper viruses" - could cause disease and cancer in humans.

The gay hepatitis B experiments (1978-1981) that preceded AIDS HIV and the KS virus were introduced shortly after U.S. government scientists began recruiting large groups of gays from health clinics for the purpose of testing, treatment, and experimentation. It is my contention that this most hated minority in America afforded an opportunity to covertly test laboratory cancer viruses and "human candidate viruses" as specified in the VCR annual reports.

Were the primate "ancestors" of HIV and the KS herpes virus contained in some vials of the experimental hepatitis B vaccines? The extremely high incidence of both these "new" viruses in gays who volunteered for the vaccine experiments suggests this possibility.

The experimental vaccine was developed by Merck in chimpanzees and manufactured by purifying the pooled blood of 30 gay men who were hepatitis B virus carriers.[4] The volunteers in the experiment had to be free of the hepatitis B virus in order to test the efficacy of the vaccine.

During the first trial (November 1978-October 1979) at the New York Blood Center in Manhattan, there was great concern that the vaccine might be contaminated. According to June Goodfield's Quest for the Killers, p 86, "This was no theoretical fear, contamination having been suspected in one batch made by the National Institutes of Health, though never in Merck's." The 1,083 gay men were given three inoculations of the vaccine over a period of three months. The vaccine for each injection given to each man was contained within a one-dose individual vial.

The vaccine trial was a tremendous success with 96% of the men developing protective antibodies against the hepatitis B virus. [5,6] Some investigators condemning the man-made theory of AIDS have speculated that many of the men might have been already immunosuppressed by HIV before the experiment.

However, in that case the 96% success rate could not have been achieved because immunosuppressed people frequently do not produce antibodies to the vaccine. Furthermore, there is no evidence that HIV existed in the U.S. blood supply before 1978, the year the gay experiments began.

Irrespective of how the two viruses were "introduced," it is a fact that government scientists quickly vilified gays and promoted AIDS as "gay-related immunodeficiency disease," and as "gay cancer" and "gay pneumonia." The disease was allowed to spread by the federal government which put budget ahead of the nation's welfare, and by disinterested health authorities who placed political expediency before the public health - and by scientists more concerned with international prestige than saving lives, as detailed by Randy Shilts in his classic book, And The Band Played On.

The end of the Virus Cancer Program and the birth of AIDS

The VCP ended in 1980 with the inability to prove that viruses were involved in human cancer. However, the VCP gave birth to genetic engineering, molecular biology, and the human genome project. The program built up the field of animal retrovirology, which led to a more complete understanding of how immunosuppressive and cancer-causing retroviruses caused disease. Naturally, this was helpful when the first cases of "gay cancer" erupted in 1979 in Manhattan and the epidemic was officially recognized in 1981.

As the VCP ended in 1980, more gay vaccine experiments began in other cities, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. The vaccine trials ended in early 1981, just before the epidemic became official. These cities quickly became the primary epicenters of AIDS. Within a few years AIDS became the leading cause of death in young men in New York City; and that city would have the largest number of reported cases in the U.S.

Being a participant in the government's hepatitis studies was clearly dangerous to a gay man's health. After HIV and the KS virus were introduced there was a definite increase in the cancer death rate in male homosexuals, not only from KS, but from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and other types of cancers as well. This was reported in Koblin's 1996 study of 15,565 gays in New York and San Francisco who participated in hepatitis B virus studies in the late 1970s.

The introduction of HIV and the KS herpes virus into gay men miraculously revived the career of Robert Gallo and made him the most famous virologist in the world; and turned the failure of the VCP in 1980 into a triumph a few years later.

When Gallo's blood test for HIV became available in the mid-1980s, the New York Blood Center's stored gay blood specimens were reexamined for this virus. Most astonishing is the fact that 20% of the gay men in the Manhattan experiment were HIV-positive in 1980 (one year before the AIDS epidemic became "official").

These Manhattan gays in 1980 had the highest incidence of HIV anywhere in the world, including Africa, the supposed birthplace of HIV and AIDS. Forty percent of the men were HIV-positive in 1984. [9] And, as previously noted, one out of five gay men (20%) in an AIDS study group in New York City in 1982 tested positive for the new KS herpes-8 virus.

It must be assumed that many of the men in the experiment eventually died of AIDS. The actual number of AIDS deaths has never been revealed. Attempts to secure this vital medical information have been rebuffed due to "confidentiality issues."

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© May 2007 By Afromerica