E-Letter responses to:

perspective: David M. Hillis AIDS: Origins of HIV Science 2000; 288: 1757-1759 [Summary] [Full text]

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Published E-Letter responses:

If OPV Were the Source of AIDS

Horia Georgescu   (13 November 2000)

Re: Chimpanzee Kidneys Not Used to Prepare Oral Poliovirus Vaccines

David M. Hillis   (19 June 2000)

Chimpanzee Kidneys Not Used to Prepare Oral Poliovirus Vaccines

Robert F. Garry   (19 June 2000)

If OPV Were the Source of AIDS 13 November 2000
Horia Georgescu, Anesthesiologist Clinique Lambert Respond to this E-Letter: Re: If OPV Were the Source of AIDS	Had the origins of the AIDS epidemic been in the oral polio vaccine, AIDS would have appeared as a pediatric problem.
Re: Chimpanzee Kidneys Not Used to Prepare Oral Poliovirus Vaccines 19 June 2000
David M. Hillis, Professor University of Texas Respond to this E-Letter: Re: Re: Chimpanzee Kidneys Not Used to Prepare Oral Poliovirus Vaccines	Dr. Garry is correct that I erred in stating that chimpanzees were used in preparing oral polio vaccines (OPV) (for which I cited Edward Hooper's book, "The River," as a source). Rather, I should have said that Hooper merely suggested that chimpanzees may have been used to prepare the vaccine. I am aware of no evidence that chimps were actually used, and people who were involved in the preparation of the vaccines have since told me that no chimpanzees were used. I should have indicated that this was a hypothesis rather than a fact. I also agree that the tests that are currently underway to look for traces of chimpanzee DNA in OPVs should settle this question. In any case, the hypothesis that OPV is the orgin of the HIV pandemic is difficult to reconcile with the findings of Korber et al. The only way that the OPV hypothesis could be reconciled with their data is if a large number of strains of SIVcpz were introduced through the vaccine. This would require that many different chimpanzees were used, and that SIVcpz infection rates were much higher then they they are now. Because neither of these possibilities seems likely, and because there is no evidence that chimpanzees were even used at all, I think there is no good evidence to support the hypothesis that OPV is the origin of the HIV pandemic.
Chimpanzee Kidneys Not Used to Prepare Oral Poliovirus Vaccines 19 June 2000
Robert F. Garry, Professor Tulane Medical Center Respond to this E-Letter: Re: Chimpanzee Kidneys Not Used to Prepare Oral Poliovirus Vaccines	Hillis says that "Poliovirus was cultured in chimpanzee kidney cells," citing "The River" by Edward Hooper. However, this assertion is vigorously disputed by Hillary Koprowski and others directly involved in producing the vaccines used in the trials in Central Africa in the late 1950s. Rather, kidneys from Asian monkeys were used to prepare the vaccines, animals that do not harbor retroviruses as closely related to HIV as SIVcpz. Hooper himself does not state with certainty that chimpanzee cells were used to produce the vaccine, but rather makes an impassioned plea that the lots of polio vaccine stored since these African trials be tested for the presence of SIV proviral DNA. A better test would be to determine whether or not chimpanzee genomic DNA is present. If only DNA from Asian monkeys is present in the vaccines, then the oral poliovirus vaccine hypothesis of the origin of HIV in humans can be put to rest.