Emerging Viruses-Aids & Ebola - By Leanard ... - preterhuman.net

At that time, retroviruses were seen to infect chickens, mice, andcats, but not humans. [4]Following his discovery of interleukin-II, a natural substance thatkept cultured T-cells alive and multiplying, Gallo's "careeradvanced smoothly-until the false alarm of 1976. It appeared thathe had discovered a new virus, and proudly, Gallo announced itto the world. When it turned out that an animal virus hadcontaminated his cell line, and there was no new virus, Gallo'sreputation plummeted." [4]"For all his accolades," Shilts recorded, "Bob Gallo remained acontroversial figure in science." Critics saw him as pompous andarrogant. In scientific politics, "he could be ruthless" and "notalways reliable." Gallo himself recognized this criticism reflected"the shadowy side of his character." In his mind however, thispride and arrogance, was required "from the few brave scientistswho challenged nature to yield its secrets." [4]Among his most valuable contributions to the AIDS researcheffort, Shilts acknowledged, was Gallo's cell culturing and virustyping techniques.". . . By easily being able to grow lymphocytes, Gallo had alreadyovercome a formidable research barrier. Some viruses eludeddecent study simply because scientists couldn't figure out how topropagate their host cells." [5]"Experiments to detect antibodies [blood markers that are used toindicate exposure to a foreign substance or an active infection] tothe Human T-cell Leukemia virus, HTLV, were performed easilywith reagents sent from Dr. Bob Gallo's lab. . ." [6]What troubled me after reading these sections was the realizationthat he had the cell lines to culture the AIDS virus and theantibodies to detect it before anyone in the world knew what itwas.My selected review of 'The Band' quickly drew my attention toanother interesting oddity. Gallo, credited with having identifiedHTLV-the first isolated retrovirus known to cause leukemia inhumans, in 1980, had apparently shown his retrovirus was linkedto a Japanese outbreak of leukemia. Apparently, Gallo had firstdiscovered this unique retrovirus; then "searched worldwide for adisease that it might cause." [7]"That's kind of like playing pin the donkey on the tail," Imuttered to myself. "A very unusual approach to medicalscience."Allegedly by chance, Gallo stumbled upon Japanese researcherswho were searching for T-cell leukemia's viral culprit.Identifying HTLV, forged a major scientific breakthrough invirology. It also disturbed scientists who recognized that such akiller, due to its long incubation period, could spread widelybefore it caused disease or was even suspected. [7] Somethingwhich Gallo was undoubtedly aware with the NCI's charter