Smallpox vaccines may protect against HIV.

2003 OCT 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Smallpox vaccinations may also provide protection against the virus that causes AIDS, according to researchers at George Mason University.

The findings are only preliminary and based on a very small study, but Ken Alibek, director of the university's National Center for Biodefense, said the early results are encouraging.

"This could result in some very important work," said Alibek, a former top scientist in the Soviet biological weapons program who came to the United States in 1992. "If we are on the right direction, this could be a great way to protect people" because the vaccine is already in production, has been tested for safety and has already been used successfully on a global scale to eradicate the smallpox virus.

The research was based on a hypothesis that the spread of HIV in central Africa coincided with the decline of smallpox. As smallpox was eliminated and people stopped receiving vaccinations in the early 1980s, HIV began to spread rapidly.

Alibek said Raymond Weinstein, a fellow researcher at George Mason, approached him with the hypothesis about AIDS and smallpox.

"My first reaction was this sounds like some kind of crazy idea. But after some analysis, I realized maybe this is not so crazy," Alibek said.

To test the theory, Alibek and Weinstein studied blood samples from 10 people who received the smallpox vaccination and 10 who did not.