Africa AIDS
may not
be related
to vaccine
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON - Independent
laboratory tests have found no
evidence to support the theory
that an experimental polio vac
cine used on about 1 million
Africans in the 1950s inadver
tently triggered the AIDS epi
demic.
The findings, presented
Monday at a conference at the
Royal Society in London, found
no evidence that the vaccine,
administered between 1957 and
1961, contained any tissue from
chimpanzees.
Scientists believe that HIV,
the virus that causes AIDS, prob
ably originates from the type of
SIV, or simian immunodeficien
cy virus, found in chimpanzees
in western central Africa. But
they don’t know how or when the
chimp virus got into humans.
The prevailing theory is that
a hunter became infected after
being scratched by a chimp
when trying to capture it or after
cutting himself while butchering
the animal. However, some
experts suspect that polio vac
cine made with contaminated
chimpanzee cells may have
been the culprit.
in me latest tests, samples oi
four different supplies of the
vaccine, including some used in
the African immunization pro
gram, were tested for traces of
genetic material from animals.
IVvo independent laborato
ries - the Max-Planck Institute in
Leipzig, Germany and Paris's
Pasteur Institute, the lab where
HIV was first isolated - were
given vaccine samples to test.
The tests revealed the sam
ples were made using monkey
tissue and found no chimp DNA,
said Claudio Basilico, chairman
of the microbiology department
at New York University School of
Medicine, told the scientists.
Basilico chaired a committee
of scientists set up by
Philadelphia’s Wistar Institute,
the research institute which pro
duced the vaccine, to investigate
claims that chimp tissue might
have been used.
“Does this definitively rule
out the vaccine theory? No, but it
makes it more unlikely,” Basilico
said.
He said record-keeping was
sketchy at the time and that
there may have been other sam
ples not tested that were used in
Africa.
The tests were also designed
to find traces of SIV and found
none. But that may not be
important, Basilico said,
because the virus could have
died out after 40 years in a freez
er.
The findings did not dampen
the views of writer Edward
Hooper, chief proponent of the
polio vaccine theory.
Hooper contended in a 1999
book, “The River,” that the
Wistar Institute scientists might
have used chimp kidneys con
taminated with the virus to
make some batches of the vac
cine.
“This means nothing at all
for the polio vaccine theory
because different batches were
prepared,” Hooper said, adding
that other, untested or missing
batches might have yielded dif
ferent results.
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Light up once, and you may
light up for life, scientists sav
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON - Scientists have
confirmed the suspicion held
by some smokers but never
proven: It could take just a few
cigarettes to become addicted.
Some 12- and 13-year-olds
showed evidence of addiction
within days of their first ciga
rette, according to research
reported this week in the
British Medical Association
journal Tobacco Control.
"There’s been a suspicion
that many people become
addicted very quickly, but this
is really the first hard evidence
that we’ve had that this occurs,”
said Dr. Richard Hurt, director
of the Nicotine Dependency
Unit at the Mayo Clinic.
Experts have tried for years
to determine how long it takes
for smokers to become addict
ed, and “the best answer to date
had been one to two years,”
said Hurt, who was not
involved in the study.
He said the findings will
help scientists better under
stand the biology of nicotine
addiction and lend more plau
sibility to the idea that some
people may be more genetical
ly susceptible to it than others.
“The really important
implication of this study is that
we have to warn kids that you
can’t just fool around with ciga
rettes or experiment with ciga
rettes for a few weeks and then
give it up,” said Dr. Joseph
DiFranza, who lead the
research at the University of
Massachusetts.
“If you fool around with cig
arettes for a few weeks, you
may be addicted for life.”
The study, conducted in
1998, followed 681 12- to 13
year-olds in central and
tracked their smoking habits
for a year.
The researchers did not
label any of them addicted
because the standard defini
tion of nicotine dependence
assumes addiction cannot
happen without prolonged
heavy smoking.
The scientists simply
recorded symptoms that indi
cate addiction.
These include cravings,
needing more to get the same
buzz, withdrawal symptoms
when not smoking, feeling
addicted to tobacco and loss of
control over the number of cig
arettes smoked or the duration
of smoking.
Ninety-five of the youths
said they had started smoking
occasionally - at least one ciga
rette a month - during the
study. The scientists found that
60, or 63 percent, had one or
more symptoms of addiction.
A quarter of those with
symptoms got them within two
weeks of starting to smoke and
several said their symptoms
began within a few days.
Sixty-two percent said they
had their first symptom before
they began smoking every day,
or that the symptoms made
them start smoking daily.
The researchers found that
the symptoms began soon after
the teens started smoking.
The assumption that smok
ers only become addicted after
smoking a lot of cigarettes over
a long period of time is not nec
essary factual.
Some people who have
never smoked on a daily basis
can find it hard to quit while
others can smoke five ciga
rettes a day for many years and
not become addicted, the
study noted.
It has never been proven
that daily smoking is necessary
for addiction to begin, the
study added.
The scientists suggested
there may be three types of
smokers: Those who become
addicted very quickly, those
who get hooked gradually after
more regular smoking and
those who can smoke lightly or
pick up and drop the habit
without becoming addicted.
It is also possible that ado
lescents could be more sensi
tive to nicotine and that addic
tion may take longer in people
who start smoking at a later
age, they added.
Sterilization of women
at mental hospital noted
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS - A disabled-rights
group on Monday filed a com
plaint over the alleged forced
sterilization of 14 mentally
disabled young women at a
state-run care facility in
France.
Reports in French media
on Monday said that 14
women, in their 20s, had
allegedly been sterilized with
out their consent since 1995 at
a state facility in the town of
Sens, in the Yonne region of
central France.
The Association for the
Defense of Handicapped
People of Yonne filed a com
plaint with a local court for
the alleged “violence that led
to the mutilation and perma
nent disabilities" of the
patients, said the group’s
lawyer, Pierre Gonzalez de
Gaspard.
"The judge promised to
act fast in this serious matter,”
said the lawyer, contacted by
telephone.
In 1998, the government
released findings that about
225 physically or mentally
handicapped men and
women under state care had
been given forced steriliza
tions between 1995 and 1996.
The report said that forced
sterilization was “infrequent,
but not negligible,” and
stressed that although the
practice violated French law,
it was “virtually tolerated.”
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