Last week I listened to 3 very important BBC R4 radio programmes. The first one was about 'Mad Cow Disease', 'The Cows Are Mad.' The second was about the Post Office scandal, Kafkaesque springs to mind. The third programme, about the Infected Blood Scandal, was good but also made my blood boil as it started off with the declaration that '1200 people....were infected with AIDS.' It felt like 1981 all over again and that the intervening 42 years had never happened. No-one can catch AIDS, be infected by it, or contract it. It can develop, but it's not contagious, or infectious. It's a syndrome, the clue's in the name, not a disease. It got me thinking once again that the level of ignorance surrounding AIDS remains very high. Even so-called experts, or self-styled experts, have very little idea that the very earliest cases, the not so famous five, held the key to the entire apparent mystery.
The June 5, 1981 MMWR.
Pneumocystis Pneumonia --- Los Angeles
'In the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California. Two of the patients died. All 5 patients had laboratory-confirmed previous or current cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and candidal mucosal infection.'
On June 1st a paper was published which stated that 'Acute CMV infection is associated with a reversal in the normal ratio of helper to suppressor T lymphocytes with relative and absolute decreases in T helper cells and corresponding increases in T suppressor cells.' (Carney et al)
In February of that year Drew et al stated that CMV 'had been found in 94% of homosexual patients' and the 'data suggest that sexual transmission is an important mode of spread of CMV among adults and the homosexual men are at greater risk for CMV infections than are heterosexual men.'
In October 1960 a paper was published in the Lancet: 'CYTOMEGALIC INCLUSION DISEASE
AND PNEUMOCYSTIS CARINII INFECTIONION IN AN ADULT' - 'The association of these
two apparently separate and normally saprophytic infections (CMV/PCP) is interesting, and perhaps not entirely fortuitous, especially since the nature of the Pneumocystis organism has not yet been determined. In due course a closer relationship may be established. It is important to recognise their potential pathogenicity and their ability to produce, either alone or in combination, fatal infections
in man. There is some evidence that this danger is increased by prolonged treatment with steroids and antibiotics. Possibly more cases will occur because of the increasing use of these drugs.'
The final two sentences stand as a prophecy of what was seen 20 years later in the gay communities in New York and California.
Eerily, the December 1981 Lancet contained a paper entitled 'Primary Pneumocystis carinii and cytomegalovirus infections', telling the story of the first official UK AIDS case.
In 1977, RH Rubin published 'INFECTIOUS DISEASE SYNDROMES ATTRIBUTABLE TO CYTOMEGALOVIRUS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE AMONG RENAL TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS'. It's conclusion stated that 'the major infectious disease importance of CMV appears to be its effects on the respiratory tract and systemic host defense in predisposing to fatal superinfection. ' In other words, AIDS.
Last week I listened to 3 very important BBC R4 radio programmes. The first one was about 'Mad Cow Disease', 'The Cows Are Mad.' The second was about the Post Office scandal, Kafkaesque springs to mind. The third programme, about the Infected Blood Scandal, was good but also made my blood boil as it started off with the declaration that '1200 people....were infected with AIDS.' It felt like 1981 all over again and that the intervening 42 years had never happened. No-one can catch AIDS, be infected by it, or contract it. It can develop, but it's not contagious, or infectious. It's a syndrome, the clue's in the name, not a disease. It got me thinking once again that the level of ignorance surrounding AIDS remains very high. Even so-called experts, or self-styled experts, have very little idea that the very earliest cases, the not so famous five, held the key to the entire apparent mystery.
The June 5, 1981 MMWR.
Pneumocystis Pneumonia --- Los Angeles
'In the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California. Two of the patients died. All 5 patients had laboratory-confirmed previous or current cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and candidal mucosal infection.'
On June 1st a paper was published which stated that 'Acute CMV infection is associated with a reversal in the normal ratio of helper to suppressor T lymphocytes with relative and absolute decreases in T helper cells and corresponding increases in T suppressor cells.' (Carney et al)
In February of that year Drew et al stated that CMV 'had been found in 94% of homosexual patients' and the 'data suggest that sexual transmission is an important mode of spread of CMV among adults and the homosexual men are at greater risk for CMV infections than are heterosexual men.'
In October 1960 a paper was published in the Lancet: 'CYTOMEGALIC INCLUSION DISEASE
AND PNEUMOCYSTIS CARINII INFECTIONION IN AN ADULT' - 'The association of these
two apparently separate and normally saprophytic infections (CMV/PCP) is interesting, and perhaps not entirely fortuitous, especially since the nature of the Pneumocystis organism has not yet been determined. In due course a closer relationship may be established. It is important to recognise their potential pathogenicity and their ability to produce, either alone or in combination, fatal infections
in man. There is some evidence that this danger is increased by prolonged treatment with steroids and antibiotics. Possibly more cases will occur because of the increasing use of these drugs.'
The final two sentences stand as a prophecy of what was seen 20 years later in the gay communities in New York and California.
Eerily, the December 1981 Lancet contained a paper entitled 'Primary Pneumocystis carinii and cytomegalovirus infections', telling the story of the first official UK AIDS case.
In 1977, RH Rubin published 'INFECTIOUS DISEASE SYNDROMES ATTRIBUTABLE TO CYTOMEGALOVIRUS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE AMONG RENAL TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS'. It's conclusion stated that 'the major infectious disease importance of CMV appears to be its effects on the respiratory tract and systemic host defense in predisposing to fatal superinfection. ' In other words, AIDS.