From: Steve Edwards (SAlanEd@concentric.net)
Date: Fri Mar 07 1997 - 08:54:19 MST
A
>HIV-2 is almost genetically identical to HIV-1 (see MCM p. 1013) and causes
>AIDS-like disease in African monkeys.
>
>The HIV skeptics don't like the data showing HIV is so identical to animal
>AIDS because Koch's postulates are proven easier than with human HIV. Even
>though Koch's postulates have been satisfied by retrospective investigations
>of accidental infections with HIV such as the dental cases and hemophilia
>cases (to say nothing of the millions of homosexual male infections). About
>200 skeptics are still not satisfied vs.about 35,000 ASM members who are so
>far convinced that Koch's postulated are satisfied.
>
>It would be interesting to determine if these seemingly minor genetic
>differences change latency period prior to AIDS -like symptoms.
>
>Davin
>
>
One of Koch's postulates is that you should be able to cause the same
disease by injecting the supposed agent into a new victim. Obviously, this
has been tough to prove with HIV because nobody wants to volunteer as a test
case. However, recently chimpanzees injected the human HIV virus have been
coming down with AIDs like symptoms, declining T-cells, and at least one
appears to have died of the disease. The latency period is every bit as
long in chimps as it is in people, making these difficult and expensive
experiments to carry out. But they now appear to satisfy the most important
of Koch's postulates.
Steve Edwards
SAlanEd@concentric.net,
SAlanEd@aol.com,
http://users.aol.com/salaned/cyberplace.html
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