A Little Chimp in Your Smallpox Vaccine?

[Guest guest]

" They genetically engineered parts of an antibody from chimpanzees, which are

immune to smallpox, and a human antibody. "

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews & storyID=2006-

01-23T223543Z_01_N23338808_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-SMALLPOX.xml

REUTERS

Chimps may provide safer smallpox vaccine - study

Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chimpanzee blood may provide a safer vaccine against

smallpox, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

A vaccine made by splicing chimp and human antibodies was both safer and

more effective than the current vaccine, which uses a live virus and has a

high rate of side effects, the researchers reported.

" This is an important finding in the race to develop effective measures

against a potential bioterror attack involving the deadly smallpox virus, "

said Dr. Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health.

" It is imperative that we have effective treatments available that everyone

could use in the event of a bioterror attack, " added Dr. Fauci,

director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where

the study was done.

" This study shows that there are potential alternatives to existing

treatments and perhaps to existing vaccines that we can use to enhance our

arsenal of medical countermeasures. "

Smallpox was eradicated as a naturally occurring infection in 1980, but

experts fear that some samples of the virus were made into biological

weapons which groups or governments could use in an attack.

So the U.S. government has been vaccinating military personnel and some

police, health and emergency workers against smallpox, using Wyeth's old

DryVax vaccine. This vaccine is based on decades-old technology and uses a

live virus, called vaccinia, which is related to smallpox.

It can cause severe side effects and, rarely, death.

The NIAID's Dr. Purcell and colleagues made a synthetic antibody --

an immune system protein that recognizes and helps neutralize invaders such

as viruses.

They genetically engineered parts of an antibody from chimpanzees, which are

immune to smallpox, and a human antibody.

Tests in mice showed it worked to prevent infection with vaccinia. In the

lab, it neutralized samples of the actual smallpox virus.

The vaccine might help prevent complications from the smallpox vaccine and

might even work to protect people directly from smallpox, the researchers

report in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences.

Two companies are working on a more advanced smallpox vaccine for the U.S.

government -- Danish vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic and British vaccine maker

Acambis.

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

$$ Donations to help in the work - accepted by Paypal account

vaccineinfo@... voicemail US 530-740-0561

(go to http://www.paypal.com) or by mail

Vaccines - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers On-Line course - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccineclass.htm

Homeopathy On-Line course - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm

ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL

OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.

******

" Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down.

Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy

knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information

and religions destroy spirituality " .... Ellner