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participating institutions:
Johns Hopkins University AIDS Service, New York State DOH AIDS Institute, The CORE Center, Cook County Hospital



NEWS AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS



Disputed AIDS theory dies its final death [Cohen J Science 2001; 292: 615]:The author reports data presented at the meeting of the Royal Society in which four papers formally dismiss the theory that contaminated polio vaccine was responsible for the genesis of HIV infection about 40 years ago. The theory was presented in the 1999 book The River by Edward Hooper, who suggested that a chimpanzee virus [SIVcpz] contaminated the cells used to grow polio virus for the vaccine that was then given to one million Africans. The data to refute the theory included three studies of the prior vaccine which found no DNA from chimpanzee cells, no evidence of HIV, and no evidence of SIVcpz. Further evidence was provided by Edward Holmes and colleagues from Oxford and was based on evolutionary biology. Dr. Holmes is quoted as follows: "Hooper's evidence was always flimsy, and now it's untenable . . . it's time to move on."
posted 6/20/2001





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