Health Issue: Rabid Spread Of HIV,

Smallpox wipeout sparked AIDS spread?

End Of Vaccination Took Away Protection-From HIV, Say researchers

Washington: The end of smallpox vaccination in the mid-20th century could be responsible for a loss of protection that led to the rapid spread of HIV, according to researchers.

          It is known that vaccinia immunization, as given to prevent the spread of smallpox, reduces HIV replication in the laboratory. Raymond Weinstein, a scientist at George Mason University, Manassas, Virginia, US, in collaboration with a team from George Washington University and UCLA to look at the ability of whiteblood cells taken from people recently immunized with vaccinia to support HIV re;ication compared to unvaccinated controls.

         To test if smallpox jab interferes with how well HIV multiplies, researchers looked at the white blood cells taken from people recently immunised against smallpox and tested how they responded to HIV.

         They found significantly lower replication rates of HIV in blood cells from vaccinated individuals, compared with those from unvaccinated controls. The smallpox vaccine appeared to cut HIV replication five-fold.

         "There have been several proposed explanations for the rapid spread of HIV in Africa, including wars, the reuse of unsterilized needles and the contamination of early batches of polio vaccine. However,all of these have been either disproved or do not sufficiently explain the behavior of the HIV pandemic. Our finding that prior immunization with vaccinia virus may provide an individual with some degree of protection to subsequent HIV infection suggests that the withdrawal of such vaccination may be a partial explanation,"Weinstein added.

         Smallpox immunization was gradually withdrawn from the 1950s to the 1970s following the worldwide eradicationof the disease, and HIV has been spreading exponentially since approximately the same time period.

          The researchers have proposed that vaccination may confer protection against HIV by producing long term alterations in the immune system, possibly including the expression of a certain receptor, CCR5, on the surface of a person's white blood cells which is exploited by both viruses.

         Speaking about the results, We Instien said: "While these results are very interesting and hopefully may lead to a new weapon against the HIV pandemic, they are very preliminary and it is far too soon to recommend the general use of vaccinia immunization for fighting HIV.