Smallpox vaccine 'triggered Aids virus' London Times | MAY 11,
1987 PEARCE WRIGHT, SCIENCE EDITOR The Aids epidemic may have
been triggered by the mass vaccination campaign which eradicated
smallpox. The World Health Organization, which masterminded the
13-year campaign, is studying new scientific evidence suggesting
that immunization with the smallpox vaccine Vaccinia awakened
the unsuspected, dormant human immuno defence virus infection
(HIV). Some experts fear that in obliterating one disease,
another disease was transformed from a minor endemic illness of
the Third World into the current pandemic. While doctors now
accept that Vaccinia can activate other viruses, they are
divided about whether it was the main catalyst to the Aids
epidemic. But an adviser to WHO who disclosed the problem, told
The Times: 'I thought it was just a coincidence until we studied
the latest findings about the reactions which can be caused by
Vaccinia. Now I believe the smallpox vaccine theory is the
explanation to the explosion