Bridging the Gap—a Reply

✍ Scribed by LEONARD HAYFLICK; STANLEY PLOTKIN

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 59 KB
• Volume: 207
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5193
• DOI: 10.1006/jtbi.2000.2190

✦ Synopsis

In their article, &&Bridging the Gap; Human Diploid Cell Strains and the Origin of AIDS'' Goldberg & Stricker (2000) make two speculations: (1) && 2 the experimental poliovaccine given to infants and children in Central Africa (in the late 1950s) may have been part of a "eld trial involving a new vaccine production method using human cells''; and (2) the &&Sabin poliovaccine (produced in WI-38) 2 used to treat recurrent genital herpes simplex in homosexual men (in the 1970s) 2 (exposed) these men to retrovirally contaminated poliovaccines in high doses (that) would provide a gateway for HIV-1 infection and spread in the homosexual community''.

As for the "rst speculation, the undersigned, who produced and administered the "rst poliovaccine produced in normal human cells referred to by Goldberg and Stricker, categorically deny that this vaccine was ever used in Africa (Hayflick et al., 1962).

Goldberg and Stricker further assert &&As concerns the poliovaccine used in the Belgian Congo, Hayflick (1992) states: &The seed virus used by me to produce the type 1 poliovirus vaccine was the CHAT strain 2 plaque puri"ed in 2 WI-1 2 '.''. The facts are that the poliovaccine prepared and administered by the undersigned was, as quoted, a triple plaque puri"ed poliovaccine serotype called CHAT. However, neither this vaccine nor any other poliovaccine plaque puri"ed in human diploid cells was ever used in Africa in the 1950s or the 1960s. The WI-1 vaccine was administered only to six infants in the Philadelphia area as reported (Hayflick et al., 1962).

Goldberg and Stricker also assert, &&With the encouragement and support of the National Institutes of Health, Hayflick and his co-workers