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Scroll down for DLRM conference report by Ray Greek, M.D.
link to more recent addenda
December 15, 1997
ANIMAL VIRUSES LEAP SPECIES BARRIER
Monkey pox outbreak in Congo (Orange County Register Dec. 11)
Monkey virus kills researcher at Yerkes Primate Center
(AP Dec.12)
Six people victims of chicken virus in Hong Kong
(ABC News Dec. 15)
Chicken flu virus raises concerns (Science News Dec. 13)
All species, including humans, harbor viruses. These endogenous viruses are usually harmless to the species they inhabit because it is not in the best interests of viruses to kill their hosts. At least this is the case when the relationship is a long-term one. The host animal develops immunity sufficient to keep the virus from multiplying beyond control and the virus accepts this arrangement as the cost of living space. When viruses find themselves in a new environment, however, as in a different species that has not had the opportunity to develop immunity, they can respond by multiplying rapidly, invading new tissues, and making the host very unhappy if not dead.
This is why current efforts to raise transgenic pigs with human genes as a source of organs and tissues for transplanting into humans threatens the human race as a whole.
In the last decade we have seen how bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow" disease) caused new variant Creuzfeldt Jakob disease in humans. We have seen people dying from a hanta virus carried by mice. A moribilli virus from horses claimed the lives of their human care-givers in Australia. People have died from the Ebola virus carried by monkeys. Cancers have been attributed to the SV40 virus in polio vaccine cultured on monkey kidneys. HIV, the virus considered by most scientists to cause AIDS, probably came from green monkeys. The swine flu epidemic of 1918 claimed 20 million human lives.
Humans are normally shielded from animal viruses by their skin, stomach acids, and mucosal membranes, but these barriers are by-passed when tissues and organs from other species are implanted within the human body. Transmitted viruses threaten not only the transplant recipient but have the potential to become transmissible from one human to another as in the 1918 swine flu epidemic.
October 6, 1997
REPORT ON DLRM SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS
HELD IN VANCOUVER JULY 5, 1997
C. Ray Greek, M.D.
Board Certified Anesthesiology
Certificate of Added Qualification in Pain Management
Member of Medical Research Modernization Committee
Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible Medicine's Xenotransplant Conference was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada last July. The setting was gorgeous, a picturesque meeting of mountains, and the Pacific Ocean. Temperatures were pleasant, the skies clear, and minds were open. The conference was well-attended by the community. The conference attendees were educated, well-informed people concerned about their government's involvement in the risky venture of interspecies transplantation. Biomedical professionals and government officials were well-represented. The Canadian Minister of Health participated, and we were delighted to see such a prominent official take an interest in this important issue.
I enjoyed interacting with the attendees during the breaks and answering their questions. The primary concerns expressed were about the possibility of a preventable epidemic and the failure of their governments to take action. We discussed the numerous diseases that have jumped the species barrier and the devastating resultant illnesses. At the conference conclusion most participants advocated the strongest possible wording in the resolution against xenotransplantation and many left inspired to plan their own political actions.
Participants asked many questions but of tantamount concern was establishing a mechanism for alerting their communities to the dangers of xenotransplantation and enacting a ban on this heinous "technology". The political systems of the various countries of participants were discussed. One frequently echoed question was, "Why does our government allow such risks with public health?" Attendants were surprised to learn that xenotransplantation is a billion dollar industry. The vested interest groups in developed countries pressure governments to approve these money-making opportunities. Strategies for fighting these industrial monsters were suggested.
We were invited to return and debate local doctors and lawyers on the safety of xenotransplants. Many were surprised to learn that organizers had attempted to arrange just such a debate and had been unable to locate a single individual willing to engage in open discussion. Representatives of the hospitals, institutions, and doctors are reluctant to speak out against a money-maker. There is money for these local institutions in xenotransplantation.
Participants offered to follow up with some of the doctors in an attempt to arrange a debate. I am not optimistic that they will be able to arrange this; historically it has been impossible to get doctors to defend the indefensible. They will perform xenotransplants, but when asked to defend their actions publicly against those who know the reality of the situation, they refuse. At any rate, remember that their failure to meet us in a public forum only makes our position more viable.
Xenotransplant supporters arrived at the conference, uneducated about the dangers of this procedure. They were shocked that the authorities have suppressed this information. By the end of the conference, our speakers had provided such graphic and well-documented evidence of the real and inseparable harm inherent in this type of experimentation that many of these individuals had been converted into former xenotransplant supporters!
Concerns were raised that xenotransplantation might not be the only example of profits being more important than public safety. I was able to educate attendants about the futility of experimentation on animals. Animals are not just funny-looking people; there are countless examples of human health being harmed based on fallacious conclusions by examples of discoveries delayed by animal research and by numbers of patients harmed by procedures and medications that worked well on animals.
This conference was a stellar success and should be repeated in all the centers where xenotransplants are being advocated. Local communities need to be informed of the risks so they can become involved in stopping this devastating, futile, and unnecessary operation. If the Vancouver community is indicative, there will be a massive ground-swell of support for outlawing the procedure. DLRM intends to take a leadership role in this process. We will continue to challenge big business and their government pawns to take responsible action and outlaw xenotransplants. The Vancouver conference was an immense success, but it's just the beginning.
previous addenda home page link to more recent addenda (Continued on page 43)
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