Monkeys may help find A.I.D.S. cure

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 46

Monkeys may help find A.I.D.S. cure

NZPA-Reuter Nairobi Research workers in Nairobi have found that the vervet monkey, common in Kenya and other African countries, is a carrier of the virus which causes A.1.D.5., Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Dr James Else, the American director of the Institute of Primate Research, told Reuters that present research showed that 30 per cent of the vervet monkeys tested at the institute carried the virus HTLV-3.

HTLV-3 is thought to be the cause of A.I.D.S. Dr Else said blood samples had been sent to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and to the Royal Cancer Institute in Britain for more detailed analysis.

“The real significance of those results is still to be determined,” he said. It was not yet known whether the monkeys, which are also known as green monkeys, contracted the A.I.D.S. virus only in specific areas or whether it was more widespread, he said.

The Institute of Primate Research, which already gets finance from the European Community for some of its work, is now asking the Community to provide money for the work on A.I.D.S.

The institute, in the Ololua forest in Ngong, a Nairobi suburb, uses monkeys and baboons to research diseases which also affect man.

Research into fertility and the effects of contraceptive drugs is done with primates because of their

physical similarities with humans. Dr Else, of the California Primate Research Centre in Los Angeles, said the link with A.I.D.S. had been discovered in the course of the institute’s research programme.

It could be an important factor in furthering the search for a cure for A.I.D.S. he said, but more finance was needed to support further research work. Some cases of A.I.D.S. have been discovered in East Africa. The Tanzanian news agency has reported that 12 people are suspected to have died of A.I.D.S. at a Government hospital in Kagera, north-west Tanzania.

Tanzanian doctors say they have identified 30 suspected A.I.D.S. cases, including the 12 who have died. Facilities were not available to provide accurate diagnosis. A.I.D.S. is associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma, a type of skin cancer which is widespread in parts of east and central Africa, including Uganda, Zaire and parts of Kenya. Researchers say A.I.D.S. appears to be present in these areas but very little work has so far been done on the disease here.

Although A.I.D.S. has been associated with male homosexuals in America and Europe, this association does not appear to apply in Africa where the A.I.D.S. virus has been identified in both men and women with no history of homosexuality.