SV40 and the Polio vaccine

SV40 stands for Simian Virus 40. This is a cancer causing monkey virus which was found in FDA approved Polio vaccines in 1960.

Excerpt taken from http://sv40foundation.org/

The Discovery of Simian Virus 40 (SV40)

Between 1959 and 1960, Bernice Eddy, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Health (NIH) examined minced rhesus monkey kidney cells under a microscope.[16] These were the cells of the same species of monkeys used to create and produce the oral polio vaccine. Dr. Eddy discovered that the cells would die without any apparent cause. She then took suspensions of the cellular material from these kidney cell cultures and injected them into hamsters. Cancers grew in the hamsters.[17] Shortly thereafter, scientists at the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. discovered what would later be determined to be the same virus identified by Eddy.[18] This virus was named Simian Virus 40 or SV40 because it was the 40th simian virus found in monkey kidney cells.

In 1960, Doctors Benjamin Sweet and Maurice Hilleman, the Merck scientists who named the virus SV40, published their findings: 

Viruses are commonly carried by monkeys and may appear as contaminants in cell cultures of their tissues, especially the kidney . . . . The discovery of this new virus, the vacuolating agent, represents the detection for the first time of a hitherto “non-detectable” simian virus of monkey renal cultures and raises the important question of the existence of other such viruses . . . . As shown in this report, all 3 types of Sabin’s live poliovirus vaccine, now fed to millions of persons of all ages, were contaminated with vacuolating virus.[19]

The vacuolating virus was another name for SV40.

In 1962, Dr. Bernice Eddy published her findings in the journal produced by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. She wrote:

There is now an impressive list of oncogenic (cancer causing) viruses—the rabbit papilloma, polyoma, Rous sarcoma, the leukemia viruses . . . . It has been known for a number of years that monkeys harbor latent viruses . . . . The (SV40) virus was injected at once into 13 newborn hamsters and 10 newborn mice. Subcutaneous neoplasms indistinguishable from those induced by the rhesus monkey kidney extracts developed in 11 of the 13 hamsters between 156 and 380 days . . . .[20]

What happened after 1963 is debated. Government authorities believe that there were no contaminated vaccines released after this period. Others think that this is not the case.  The argument comes down to two sets of evidence: 1) what was actually done by the manufacturers to ensure that SV40 was removed; 2) what various studies have revealed. 

Obviously, the best way to answer this question is for the government to demand (or for manufacturers to volunteer) to open their freezers and allow independent SV40 scientists to test the vaccine materials in cold storage. Given the public health implications one would think that such steps should have been undertaken years ago. They have not. The government has never demanded that independent testing be performed and the manufacturers have never volunteered.

Excerpt from the William Carlsen / SF Chronicle dated July 22, 2001

Last year [2000], a lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles against Lederle by the parents of 2 1/2-year-old Alexander Horwin who died of a brain tumor that later tested positive for SV40. The suit claims that the tumor was caused by SV40 and that he became infected through a 1997 oral polio vaccine.

Kops and attorney Donald MacLachlin represent a New Jersey family that is considering a suit against vaccine manufacturers.

In 1970, surgeons removed a large brain tumor from 2-year-old Mark Moreno. He since has undergone five more surgeries and now wears a protective helmet over the large opening in his cranium where bone grafts never took. Moreno, now 33, lives with his mother and requires daily assistance.

Recent tests show Moreno's tumor was riddled with SV40, according to the lawyers.

Eileen Moreno, Mark's mother, believes her son's brain tumor was caused by SV40 and that he was infected through the oral polio vaccine in 1968.

Subsequent studies performed in the early 1960s demonstrated that SV40 caused brain tumors in animals[21] and that SV40 could transform or turn cancerous normal human tissue in vitro.[22] A disturbing experiment performed during this era also suggested that SV40 could cause human cancers in man in vivo.[23] In 1964, Fred Jensen and his colleagues took tissue from patients who were terminally ill with cancer.[24] They exposed the tissue to SV40 and then after it was transformed, they implanted the tissue back into the patient.[25] These implants grew into tumors in their human hosts.[26] This suggested the possibility that SV40 could cause cancers in man.