February 18, 1999 WASHINGTON TIMES ARTICLE > >Polio Shots in '50s, '60s are linked to cancer Tainted vaccine given to >millions >Source: Washington Times February 17, 1999 >By Robert Matthews London Sunday Telegraph > >LONDON - The mass vaccination campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s may be >causing hundreds of deaths a year because of a cancer-causing virus that >contaminated the first polio vaccines, according to scientists. Known >as SV40, the virus came from dead monkeys whose kidney cells were used >to culture the first Salk vaccines. > >Doctors estimate that the virus was injected into tens of millions >during mass vaccination campaigns before being detected and screened out >in 1963. Those born between 1941 and 1961 are thought to be most at >risk of having been infected. Now a new study of the effects of SV40 >points to disturbing evidence that the monkey virus causes a number of >human cancers. It concludes that there is "compelling" evidence linking >SV40 to mesothelioma, a once-rare type of lung cancer whose prevalence >is rapidly increasing. > >Dr. Janet Butel of the Baylor College of Medicine in Waco, Texas, the >lead author of the study, said in an interview: "I feel strongly that >research is warranted to determine how common human infections by SV40 >may be, and what factors might predispose individuals to SV40-related >tumors." Her study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer >Institute, also suggested that the monkey virus may be passing from >those given the contaminated vaccine to their children, spreading the >cancer risk still further. > >Blood samples analyzed by Dr Butel and her colleagues point to the >steady spread of the cancer causing virus in the human population, with >10 percent of those never exposed directly to the contaminate vaccine >testing positive for SV40. Dr. Butel said : "I believe SV40 is present >in the human population today and is being spread among >individuals by an unknown route." > >The Sunday Telegraph has learned that scientists in Britain have joined >an international effort to confirm the findings. According to Gordon >McVie, the director general of the Cancer Research Campaign in Britain, >researchers have thus far uncovered evidence linking SV40 to a number of >cancers, including brain tumors and bone cancer. "I've a feeling that >the virus might be implicated in more such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and >prostate cancer.' he said. > >The study is also likely to prompt a radical re-evaluation by doctors of >what happened 40 years ago, during the early days of polio vaccination. >Until now, SV0 was regarded as harmless, with no evidence of long-term >health effects emerging in follow up studies of those vaccinated. Now it >appears that these studies may not have been conducted over a long >enough period. New highly sensitive laboratory tests have disclosed the >presence of SV40 in many different types of human tumor. > >The most startling results center on mesotheliomas , until recently >linked primarily with asbestos. Studies have found that around 70 >percent of mesothelioma cases test positive for SV40 virus. Over the >past 30 years the number of mesothelioma cases has risen 10-fold, to >about 1,000 cases a year, and is forecast to reach 4,000 early next >century. Until now the increase was blamed on the asbestos industry. > >But the new findings are leading scientists to suspect that SV40 may >account for a substantial number of mesothelliomas. Dr Butel said : >"The consistent association of SV40 with that tumor is compelling." Some >scientists remain skeptical of the link however, Robin Weiss, a >professor of viral oncology at University College in London said that >SV40 is widely used in laboratories and could easily contaminate tumor >samples, fooling the ultrasensitive tests used to detect the virus. > >Dr. Weiss said "Many of the positive results are probably false >positives. We've looked at mesothelioma and did find it in some cases, >but then we got bogged down in whether they were due to contamination or >not." However, Dr Bjarat Jasani, a teaching expert on SV40 and >mesotheliomas at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cerdiff, >said that new reliability tests rule out contamination as a possible >explanation. Dr. Jasani said he had little doubt that the mass polio >vaccination campaigns were to blame >for SV40 entering the human population. He added, however, that this >could bring a new hope to hundreds of cancer patients as it suggests >that many might be treated by a vaccine that attacked SV40. > >*************************************************************** >Karin Schumacher >Vaccine Information & Awareness (VIA) >12799 La Tortola >San Diego, CA 92129 >619-484-3197 (phone/voicemail) >619-484-1187 (fax) >via@access1.net (email) >http://www.909shot.com (NVIC website) >http://www.access1.net/via (VIA website) >*************************************************************** >We Must Have The Freedom To Choose & Respect Everyone's Choice >*************************************************************** >Any information obtained here is not to be construed as medical >OR legal advice. The decision to vaccinate and how you >implement that decision is yours and yours alone.