The Coming Plague (125 page)

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Authors: Laurie Garrett

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137
J. M. Mann, K. Bila, R. L. Colebunders, et al., “Natural History of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection in Zaire,”
Lancet
II (1986): 707–9; Quinn, Mann, Curran, and Piot (1986), op. cit.; and K. Kayembe, J. M. Mann, H. Francis, et al., “Prevalence des Anticorps Anti-HIV chez les Patients Non Atteints de SIDA ou de Syndrome Associe au SIDA à Kinshasa, Zaïre,”
Annals de la Societe Belge de Médecine Tropique
66 (1986): 343–48.
138
J. M. Mann, H. Francis, F. Davachi, et al., “Human Immunodeficiency Virus Seroprevalence in Pediatric Patients 2 to 14 Years of Age at Mama Yemo Hospital, Kinshasa, Zaire,”
Pediatrics
78 (1986): 673–78.
139
J. M. Mann, H. Francis, T. C. Quinn, et al., “HIV Seroprevalence Among Hospital Workers in Kinshasa, Zaire,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
256 (1986): 3099–3102.
140
M. Melbye, E. K. Njelesani, A. Bayley, et al., “Evidence for Heterosexual Transmission and Clinical Manifestations of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection and Related Conditions in Lusaka, Zambia,”
Lancet
II (1986): 113–15.
141
Tanzania, Zaire, Central African Republic, Zambia, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda.
142
M. Grmek,
Histoire du SIDA: Début et Origine d'une Pandémie Actuelle
(Paris: Editions Payout, 1989). English language version, 1990, op. cit.
143
Sabatier (1988), op. cit.
144
American political scientist Alfred Fortin summarized the atmosphere in a 1986 speech to the “Challenge of AIDS” conference (Miami, Florida, November 12–16): “And so it is that out of a rather ordinary intellectual inquiry into health issues surfaces the politics of East and West, of right and left, of the exotic and the mundane, of violence and peace, and of life and death itself. In these issues of health and health care we can see the struggle against colonialism and neocolonialism, against the financial exploitation by trans-national corporations, the armies, against the ravages of nature, and most of all, against the tragedies built into poverty and ignorance. It is within all of this, the great politics of struggle and survival, that the question of AIDS in Africa must be examined.”
145
That sort of molecular epidemiology would become possible in 1986 with Kary Mullis's invention of PCR (polymerase chain reaction). The technique allowed scientists to extract from a biological mass a piece of DNA or RNA and make unlimited numbers of copies of the material. Thus, the seemingly impossible became quite simple. In 1991 the CDC would use the technique to determine whether Florida dentist David Acer infected some of his patients with HIV. The strain of HIV found in Acer's blood could be “fingerprinted” using PCR, and compared with the genetic “fingerprints” of the HIV strains infecting his patients. In this way, the agency proved that Acer's virus was, indeed, identical to those found in the patients—a circumstance that could not have been due to chance.
An excellent description of PCR can be found in K. B. Mullis, “The Unusual Origin of the Polymerase Chain Reaction,”
Scientific American
, April 1990: 56–65.
146
B. L. Evatt, E. D. Gompert, J. S. McDougal, and R. B. Ramsey, “Coincidental Appearance of LAV/HTLV-III Antibodies in Hemophiliacs and the Onset of the AIDS Epidemic,”
New England Journal of Medicine
312 (1985): 483–86.
147
J. D. Moore, E. J. Cone, and S. S. Alexander, “HTLV-III Seropositivity in 1971–1972 Parenteral Drug Abusers: A Case of False Positives or Evidence of Viral Exposure?”
New England Journal of Medicine
314 (1986): 1387–88.
148
H. Nelson and R. Steinbrook, “Drug Users—Not Gays—Called First AIDS Victims,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 18, 1985: Al; and D. Perlman, “Drug Users Started AIDS Epidemic, Doctor Says,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, October 18, 1985: 28.
149
Darrow, Gorman, and Glick (1986), op. cit.
150
M. Elvin-Lewis, M. Witte, C. Witte, et al., “Systemic Chlamydial Infection Associated with Generalized Lymphedema and Lymphangio-sarcoma,”
Lymphology
6 (1973): 113–21; and M. H. Witte,
C. L. Witte, L. L. Minnich, et al., “AIDS in 1968,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
251 (1984): 2657.
151
R. F. Garry, M. H. Witte, A. Gottlieb, et al., “Documentation of an AIDS Virus Infection in the United States in 1968,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
260 (1988): 2085–87.
152
G. R. Hennigar, K. Vinijchaikul, A. L. Roque, and H. A. Lyons,
“Pneumocystis carinii
Pneumonia in an Adult: Report of a Case,”
American Journal of Clinical Pathology
35 (1961): 353–64.
153
I. C. Bygbjerg, “AIDS in a Danish Surgeon (Zaire 1976),”
Lancet
I (1983): 925.
154
C. F. Lindboe, S. S. Froland, K. W. Wefring, et al., “Autopsy Findings in Three Family Members with a Presumably Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome of Unknown Origin,”
Acta Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Scandinavia
94 (1986): 117–23; and S. S. Froland, P. Jenum, C. F. Lindboe, et al., “HIV-1 Infection in a Norwegian Family Before 1971,”
Lancet
I (1988): 1344–45.
155
G. Williams, T. B. Stretton, and J. C. Leonard, “Cytomegalic Inclusions Disease and
Pneumocystis carinii
Infection in an Adult,”
Lancet
II (1960): 951–55; and G. Williams, T. B. Stretton, and J. C. Leonard, “AIDS in 1959?”
Lancet
II (1983): 1136.
156
J. R. Leonidas and N. Hyppolite, “Haiti and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
98 (1983): 1020–21.
157
L. Gazzolo, A. Gessain, A. Carrel, et al., “Antibodies to HTLV-III in Haitian Immigrants to French Guiana,”
New England Journal of Medicine
311 (1984): 1252–53.
158
A. E. Pitchenik, M. A. Fischl, G. M. Dickinson, et al., “Opportunistic Infections and Kaposi's Sarcoma Among Haitians: Evidence of a New Acquired Immunodeficiency State,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
98 (1983): 277–86; and J. W. Pape, B. Liautaud, F. Thomas, et al., “Characteristics of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Haiti,”
New England Journal of Medicine
309 (1983): 945–50.
159
R. Colebunders, H. Taelman, and P. Piot, “AIDS: An Old Disease from Africa?”
British Medical Journal
289 (1984): 765.
160
J. Seligmann, M. Hager, and D. Seward, “Tracing the Origin of AIDS,”
Newsweek
, May 7, 1984: 101–2; and P. Van de Perre, D. Rouvroy, P. LePage, et al., “Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in Rwanda,”
Lancet
II (1984): 62–69.
161
J. K. Kreiss, D. Koech, F. A. Plummer, et al., “AIDS Virus Infection in Nairobi Prostitutes,”
New England Journal of Medicine
314 (1986): 414–18.
162
J. Emmanuel, director of the Zimbabwe Blood Transfusion Service, personal communication, 1986. Also see “Health Education a Must in AIDS Fight,”
The Sunday Mail
(Harare), June 15, 1986: 9.
163
T. C. Quinn, J. M. Mann, J. W. Curran, and P. Piot, “AIDS in Africa: An Epidemiologic Paradigm,”
Science
234 (1986): 955–63.
164
J. A. Levy, L. Z. Pan, E. Beth-Giraldo, et al., “Absence of Antibodies to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Sera from Africa Prior to 1975,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
83 (1986): 7935–37. R. Sher, S. Antunes, B. Reid, et al., “Seroepidemiology of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Africa from 1970 to 1974,”
New England Journal of Medicine
317 (1987): 450–51. E. Tabor, R. Gerety. J. Cairns, and A. C. Bayley, “Did HIV and HTLV Originate in Africa?”
Journal of the American Medical Association
264 (1990): 691–92.
165
M. Baldo and A. J. Cabral, “Low Intensity Wars and Social Determination of the HIV Transmission: The Search for a New Paradigm to Guide Research and Control the HIV/AIDS Pandemic,” in Z. Stein and A. Zwi, eds.,
Action on AIDS in Southern Africa: Maputo Conference on Health Transition in Southern Africa, April 1990
(New York: Committee for Health in Southern Africa).
166
The most outstanding compilation of available information on this sad period in Uganda's history and its impact on AIDS can be found in Barnett and Blaikie (1992), op. cit. Other excellent sources include R. Winter, “Uganda: Creating a Refugee Crisis,” United States Committee for Refugees Newsletter, 1983; and C. P. Dodge, “The West Nile Emergency,” in C. P. Dodge and P. D. Wiebe, eds.,
Crisis in Uganda: The Breakdown of Health Services
(Oxford, Eng.: Pergamon Press, 1985).
167
There are numerous sources of more detailed information on military and political activities in the region during the mid-1970s. See, for example, Western Massachusetts Association of Concerned African Scholars,
U.S. Military Involvement in Southern Africa
(Boston: South End Press, 1978).
168
J. P. Getchell, D. R. Hicks, A. Svinivasan, et al., “Human Immunodeficiency Virus Isolated from a Serum Sample Collected in 1976 in Central Africa,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
156 (1987): 833–37.
169
N. Nzilami, K. M. De Cock, D. N. Forthal, et al., “The Prevalence of Infection with Human
Immunodeficiency Virus over a 10-Year Period in Rural Zaire,”
New England Journal of Medicine
318 (1988): 276–79.
170
K. M. De Cock and J. B. McCormick, “HIV Infection in Zaire,”
New England Journal of Medicine
319 (1988): 309.
171
A. J. Nahmias, J. Weiss, X. Yao, et al., “Evidence for Human Infection with an HTLV-III/ LAV-Like Virus in Central Africa, 1959,”
Lancet
I (1986): 1279–80.
172
R. V. Henrickson, D. H. Maul, K. G. Osborn, et al., “Epidemic of Acquired Immunodeficiency in Rhesus Monkeys,”
Lancet
I (1983): 388–90.
173
W. T. London, J. L. Sever, D. L. Madden, et al., “Experimental Transmission of Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (SAIDS) and Kaposi's-Like Skin Lesions,”
Lancet
II (1983): 869–73.
174
See letters to the editor in response to the California studies, in
Lancet
I (1983): 1097–98.
175
“Thus, African green monkeys seem to possess antibodies to STLV-III [SIVagm], unlike African chimpanzees and baboons. These African green monkeys are apparently healthy, suggesting that STLV-III may be non-pathogenic in this species … ,” the Harvard team wrote. “We suggest that STLV-III [SIVagm] of African green monkeys may have been transmitted to man coincident with the recognition of AIDS in Central Africa. An HTLV-III [HIV] related virus has thus been found in two species of Old World Primates.” P. J. Kanki, R. Kurth, W. Becker, et al., “Antibodies to Simian T-Lymphotropic Retrovirus Type III in African Green Monkeys and Recognition of STLV-III Viral Proteins by AIDS and Related Sera,”
Lancet
I (1985): 1330–32.
176
See D. Colburn, “Claiming Credit for HIV-2: A ‘Sordid Chapter' in the Politics of Research,”
Washington Post
, October 27, 1987: Health 19; F. Clavel, K. Mansinho, S. Chamaret, et al., “Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 Infection Associated with AIDS in West Africa,”
New England Journal of Medicine
316 (1987): 1180–85; F. Clavel, F. Brun-Vézinet, D. Guétard, et al., “LAV Type II: A Second Retrovirus Associated with AIDS in West Africa,”
Centre Recherche Académie Science Paris
302 (1986): 485–88; and M. Blanc, “L‘Autre Virus du SIDA,”
La Recherche
17 (1986): 974–76.
177
P. J. Kanki, F. Barin, S. M'Boup, et al., “New Human T-Lymphotropic Retrovirus (HTLV-IV) Related to Simian T-Lymphotropic Virus Type III (STLV-IIIagm),”
Science
232 (1986): 238–43.
178
P. J. Kanki, S. M‘Boup, D. Ricard, et al., “Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 4 and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in West Africa,”
Science
236 (1987): 827–31.
179
J. L. Marx, “Probing the AIDS Virus and Its Relatives,”
Science
235 (1987): 1523–25; and M. Essex and P. J. Kanki, Letter,
Nature
331 (1988): 621–22.
180
P. Kanki, S. M'Boup, R. Marlink, et al., “Prevalence and Risk Determinants of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 (HIV-2) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) in West African Female Prostitutes,”
American Journal of Epidemiology
136 (1992): 895–907; and P. J. Kanki, “Biologic Features of HIV-2,” in P. Volberding and M. A. Jacobson, eds.,
AIDS Clinical Review 1991
(New York: Marcel Dekker, 1991); 19–32.
181
See note 145.
182
G. Franchini, R. C. Gallo, H. G. Guo, et al., “Sequence of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus and Its Relationship to the Human Immunodeficiency Viruses,”
Nature
328 (1987): 539–43. The HIV-1 strain used in the study was HTLV-IIIb, the research strain that was virtually identical to Montagnier's LAV strain, both of which underwent alteration due to multiple cell culture passages in the laboratories.

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