Aids Virus example essay topic

AIDS: US Made? In an article in the Summer-Autumn 1990 issue of 'Top Secret', Prof. J. Segal and Dr. L. Segal illustrate their theory that AIDS is a man-made disease, originating at Pentagon bacteriological warfare labs at Fort Detrick, Maryland. ' Top Secret' is the international edition of the German magazine Geheimb and is a sister publication to the American Covert Action Information Bulletin (CAIB). Top Secret carries the Naming Names column, which CAIB is prevented from doing by the American government, and which names CIA agents in different locations in the world. The article, named 'AIDS: US-Made Monster,' is lengthy and has a lot of professional jargon.

'The fatal weakening of the immune system which has given AIDS its name (Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome),' write the Segals, 'has been traced back to a destruction or a functional failure of the T 4-lymphocytes, also called " helper cells', which play a regulatory role in the production of antibodies in the immune system. ' In the course of the illness, the number of functional T 4-cells is reduced to such an extent that new anti-bodies cannot be produced and the defenseless patient remains exposed to a range of infections that under other circumstances would have been harmless. Most AIDS patients die from opportunistic infections rather than from the AIDS virus itself. The initial infection is characterized by diarrhea, erysipelas and intermittent fever. An apparent recovery follows after 2-3 weeks, and in many cases the patient remains without symptoms and functions normally for years. After several years, the pre-AIDS stage, known as ARC (Aids- Related Complex) sets in.

This stage includes disorders in the digestive tract, kidneys and lungs. In most cases it develops into full-blown AIDS in about a year, at which point opportunistic illnesses occur. Disorders in various organ systems also occur, the most severe in the brain, the symptoms of which range from motor disorders to severe dementia and death. The Segals note that despite the fact that AIDS is transmitted only through sexual intercourse, blood transfusions and non- sterile hypodermic needles, the infection has spread dramatically. During the first few years after its discovery, the number of AIDS patients doubled every six months, and is still doubling every 12 months now though numerous measures have been taken against it. Based on these figures, it is estimated that in the US, which had 900,000 cases of AIDS in 1991, over 2,000,000 people will be afflicted with the virus by the year 2,000.

It is also estimated that the number of people infected is at least ten times the number of those suffering from an acute case of AIDS. Even when a vaccination becomes available, it will not help those already infected. These and the following figures have been reached by several different sources, such as the US Surgeon General and the Chief of the medical services of the US Army. 'AIDS does not merely bring certain dangers with it; it is clearly a programmed catastrophe for the human race, whose magnitude is comparable only with that of a nuclear war', say the Segals. They later explain what they mean by 'programmed,' showing that the virus was produced by humans, namely Dr. Robert Gallo of the Bethesda Cancer Research Center in Maryland. The first KNOWN cases of AIDS occurred in New York in 1979.

The first DESCRIBED cases were in California in 1979. The virus was isolated in Paris in May 1983, taken from a French homosexual who had returned home ill from a trip to the East Coast of the US. One year later, Robert Gallo and his co-workers at the Bethesda Cancer Research Center published their discovery of the same virus, which is cytotoxic. (poisonous to cells) The Segals discuss the findings of Gonda et al, who compared the HIV, vis na and other closely-related viruses and found that the vis na virus is the most similar to HIV. The two were, in fact, 60% identical in 1986. According to findings of the Hahn group, the mutation rate of the HIV virus was about a million times higher than that of similar viruses, and that on the average a 10%alteration took place every two years. That would mean that in 1984, the difference between HIV and vis na would have been only 30%, in 1982- 20%, 10% in 1980 and zero in 1978.

'This means,' say the Segals, 'that at this time changed into HIV, receiving at the same time the ability to become parasites in human T 4-cells and the high genetic instability that is not known in other retroviruses. This is also consistent with the fact that the first cases of AIDS appeared about one year later, in the spring of 1979. In his comparison of the genomes of vis na and HIV,' add the Segals, 'Coffin hit upon a remarkable feature. The envelope area of the HIV genome, which encodes the envelope proteins which help the virus to attach itself to the host cell, is about 300 nucleotides longer than the same area in vis na". This behavior suggests that an additional piece has been inserted into the genomes of virus, a piece that alters the envelope proteins and enables them to bind themselves to the T 4-receptors, a piece which does not match the rest of the system biochemically. The above mentioned work by Gonda et al shows that the HIV virus has a section of about 300 nucleotides, which does not exist in the vis na virus.

That length corresponds with what Coffin described. That section is particularly unstable, which indicates that it is an alien object. The addition of HTLV-1 to vis na made the HIV virus. In addition, the high mutation rate of the HIV genome has been explained by another scientific team, Chandra et al, by the fact that it is 'a combination of two genome parts which are alien to each other by artificial means rather than by a natural process of evolution, because this process would have immediately eliminated, through natural selection, systems that are so replete with disorders. ' 'These are the facts of the case,' say the Segals. 'HIV is essentially a vis na virus which carries an additional protein monomer of HTLV-1...

For this reason we can come to only one conclusion: that this gene combination arose by artificial means, through gene manipulation. ' 'The construction of a recombinant virus by means of gene manipulation is extraordinarily expensive, and it requires a large number of highly qualified personnel, complicated equipment and expensive high security laboratories. Moreover, the product would have no commercial value. Who, then,' ask the Segals,' would have provided the resources for a type of research that was aimed solely at the production of a new disease that would be deadly to human beings?' The English sociologist Alistair Hay, published a document whose authenticity has been confirmed by the US Congress, showing that a representative of the Pentagon requested in 1969 additional funding for biological warfare research. The intention was to create, within the next ten years, a new virus that would not be susceptible to the immune system, so that the afflicted patient would not be able to develop any defense against it.

Ten years later, in the spring of 1979, the first cases of AIDS appeared in New York. In the fall of 1977, a P 4 (highest security category of laboratory, in which human pathogens are genetically manipulated) laboratory was officially opened in building 550 of Fort Detrick, MD, the Pentagon's main biological warfare research center. 'In an article in 'Der Spiegel', Prof. Moldings point out that this type of gene manipulation was still extremely difficult in 1977. One would have had to have a genius as great as Robert Gallo for this purpose", note the Segals.

In a supposed compliance with the international accord banning the research, production and storage of biological weapons, part of Fort Detrick was 'demilitarized' and the virus section renamed the 'Frederick Cancer Research Facility'. It was put under the direction of the Cancer Research Institute in neighboring Bethesda, whose director was no other than Robert Gallo. This happened in 1975, the year Gallo discovered HTLV. Explaining how the virus escaped, the Segals note that in the US, biological agents are traditionally tested on prisoners who are incarcerated for long periods, and who are promised freedom if they survive the test. However, the initial HIV infection symptoms are mild and followed by a seemingly healthy patient. 'Those who conducted the research must have concluded that the new virus was... not so virulent that it could be considered for military use, and the test patients, who had seemingly recovered, were given their freedom.

Most of the patients were professional criminals and considering New York City's proximity to the prison many freed patients moved there. The patients were exclusively men, many of them having a history of homosexuality and drug abuse, as is often the case in American prisons. It is understandable why AIDS broke out precisely in 1979, precisely among men and among drug users, and precisely in New York City,' assert the Segals. They go on to explain that whereas in cases of infection by means of sexual contact, incubation periods are two years or more, while in cases of massive infection via blood transfusions, as must have been the case with prisoners, incubation periods are shorter than a year. 'Thus, if the new virus was ready at the beginning of 1978 and if the experiments began without too much delay, then the first cases of full-blown AIDS in 1979 were exactly the result that could have been expected. '.