Bayer Exposed - HIV Contaminated Vaccine

Bayer Sells AIDS-Infected Drug Banned in U.S. in Europe, Asia - Unearthed documents show that the drug company Bayer sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine -- Factor VIII concentrate, intended for hemophiliacs -- to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, although they knew that it was tainted with AIDS. Bayer knew about the fact that the drug was tainted and told the FDA to keep things under wraps while they made a profit off of a drug that infected its patients. If these allegations are true, then both Bayer and the FDA are at fault for this catastrophe. FDA regulators helped to keep the continued sales hidden, asking the company that the problem be ''quietly solved without alerting the Congress, the medical community and the public,'' according to the minutes of a 1985 meeting.

Darwin's Radio: Prehistoric Gene Reawakens to Battle HIV

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/04/by-annalee-newitz-500-pm-on-mon-apr-27-2009-10350-views-edit-post-set-to-draft-slurpcopy-this-whole-post-to-another-s.html

About 95% of the human genome has once been designated as "junk" DNA. While much of this sequence may be an evolutionary artifact that serves no present-day purpose, some junk DNA may function in ways that are not currently understood. The conservation of some junk DNA over many millions of years of evolution may imply an essential function that has been "turned off." Now scientists say there's a junk gene that fights HIV. And they've discovered how to turn it back on.

U.S. scientists discover genetic switch to "turn off" HIV

ChinaView.cn

LOS ANGELES, March 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers have discovered the genetic circuit in HIV that controls whether the virus turns active or stays dormant, and have succeeded in forcing the virus toward dormancy.

The study shows how a developmental decision between HIV's two "replication fates" is made. The authors were able to measure the level of "noise" or randomness in HIV gene expression and use this noise to probe how HIV decides to replicate or remain dormant.

This method is somewhat like finding a radio station by homing in on regions with the most static. It provides a new tool for probing cellular and viral regulation, and for understanding how other biological decisions are made, notably how stem cells choose between different developmental fates.

Clinton's Arkansas Blood Scandal

(Full Article-Chuck Baldwin live)

Here’s the story: In the early 1980s, while Bill Clinton was serving as governor of Arkansas, his administration awarded a contract to Health Management Associates to provide medical care to the state’s prisoners. The president of the company was, naturally, a long-time friend and political ally of Clinton and was later appointed by him to the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission. Later, he was among the senior members of Clinton’s 1990 gubernatorial re-election team.

As part of the deal HMA struck with Arkansas, in addition to treating the prisoners, the company collected their blood and sold it. Because of the exploding AIDS crisis, U.S. regulations didn’t permit the sale of prisoners’ blood within the country. But HMA found a willing buyer in Montreal, which brokered a deal with Connaught. a Toronto blood-fractionator, which didn’t know the source of the supplies. The blood was distributed throughout Canada by the Red Cross. Sales continued until 1983, when HMA revealed that some of the plasma might be contaminated with the AIDS virus and hepatitis. The blood was also peddled overseas.

AIDS Vaccine Clinical Trial Leads to HIV Infections in Volunteers

Full Story

In an appalling example of how terribly wrong clinical trials of vaccines can go, dozens of people testing a new anti-AIDS vaccine have caught the virus they were supposed to be protected against. The HIV-loaded vaccine also made people who had previously had a higher level of immunity to infection more likely to catch the virus.