Swine Flu And Dangerous Virus Experimentation

Transplanting Pig Viruses into Human Beings
From Dr. Alan Cantwell MD
5-7-9


Hi Jeff...

Thanks for posting the interesting article from The New York Times (May 5, 2009) about "10 (virus) genes furiously evolving." http://www..nytimes.com/2009/05/05/health/05virus.html)

Carl Zimmer reports: "Viruses are diverse because they can mutate very fast and can mix genes. They sometimes pick up genes from their hosts, and they can swap genes with other viruses. Some viruses, including flu viruses, carry out a kind of mixing known as reassortment. If two different flu viruses infect the same cell, the new copies of their genes get jumbled up as new viruses are assembled."


So why do scientists routinely perform dangerous experiments such as are planting pig tissue into human beings?? For example, see the Phyllida Brown article (below) that appeared in New Scientist more than a decade ago on 1 March 1997. It is posted on:
http://www.dhushara.com/book/genes/genaug/gtdec1.htm

Why do virologists rush to blame pigs for the virus causing the current flu pandemic? Why do they ignore their own viral experiments where pig viruses (and viruses from various other species) are transplanted into humans and into human tissue - and then allowed to swap genes and mutate with human viruses? Could the current "new" swine flu virus", which is a mix of human, pig and bird viruses, have its origin in gene-swapping viral lab experiments that have been going on extensively over the past half-century?

Just asking,

Alan Cantwell, M.D.
Transplant Worries New Scientist
1 Mar 97 Phyllida Brown

http://www.dhushara.com/book/genes/genaug/gtdec1.htm

AMERICA's health officials are under attack for allowing animal organs to be transplanted into humans, despite mounting evidence that they may bring viruses with them. The criticism comes after two teams of researchers found that pigs-the most promising source of organs for transplantcarry a virus that can infect human cells. Although the researchers have told the US Food and Drug Administration of their concerns, the FDA continues to allow transplants to take place. in the current issue of Nature Medicine (vol 3, p 282), Robin Weiss and his colleagues at the Institute of Cancer Research in London show that a retrovirus-the group of viruses that includes HIV-infects human cells in the lab.


Because the virus is incorporated into the pig's DNA, it cannot be removed except by selecting genetic variants of pigs that lack the virus, and breeding them to create a virus-free strain. Weiss first revealed his team's results last year at a meeting in New York.


Now David Onions, a virologist at the University of Glasgow says he has "very, very similar" results. "We think this is a matter of concern," says Onions, who advises Imutran, a British biotechnology company that is developing xenotransplant technology. "If the virus gets into human cells at all one has to take it very seriously." Last September, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta published guidelines for the use of animal organs in human transplants. They recommend that animals are screened for disease, that samples of tissue should be archived, that local review boards assess the risk of infectious disease, and that people who are given organs are monitored afterwards.


But Jon Allan, a virologist at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas, has attacked the guidelines. Writing in Nature Medicine, Allan says they are "dubious" because they do not say what sort of infections should be monitored for, and because they leave the responsibility for policing transplants to surgeons and local review boards. "I think banning transplants is the least they [the FDA] can do," Allan told New Scientist. Weiss says he told the FDA about his findings last October. Weiss also wrote to the FDA in December. However, the FDA and the CDC have not changed the draft guidelines. "I think perhaps they have not thought quite deeply enough about it," says Weiss. He adds that researchers have known for 20 years that built-in, or endogenous, retroviruses that are harmless in their natural host can jump species and cause disease in their new hosts. Philip Noguchi, director of the division of cellular and gene therapies at the FDA, says that he is not surprised by the findings, which have been confirmed by the FDKs own researchers.


The FDA has never iinph.ed that animal organs are safe, he says, and it issued the guidelines in draft form to stimulate discussion. Noguchi says that the FDA may now consider the need for specific tests for endogenous retroviruses in animals that are being used to provide organs for transplant. It may also take a formal role in overseeing local review boards. Pig tissues have already been transplanted into people. And alongside Weiss's results in Nature Medicine, a team that includes researchers from the biotechnology company Diacrin in Charlestovvn, Massachusetts, reports transplanting cells from the brains of pig fetuses into a patient with Parkinson's disease.


Alan Cantwell M.D.
alancantwell@sbcglobal.net
http://www.ariesrisingpress.com
author of, AIDS & The Doctors of Death and Queer Blood