Hi,
I've just read a paper by Don Siefkes in Medical Hypotheses, 41:289 (1993),
entitled "The Origin of HIV-1, The AIDS Virus".
The main idea being that HIV-1 is a recombinant between Bovine Immunodeficiency-
like Virus (BLV) and Visna virus and that this happened in cattle.
_AND_ that the novel virus was a contaminant of the smallpox vaccine at some
point in time (the vaccine being produced in cattle). And thus inoculated
into humans. Much of the evidence rests with similarities between the
viruses and the relationship between the areas in which AIDS is thought to
have originated and the location of heaviest vaccination against smallpox.
Can anyone throw some more light on this??
Cheers,
Chris
Chris Upton
Biochemistry & Microbiology
University of Victoria
PO Box 3055, Victoria
BC, Canada V8W 3P6
(604)721-6507
