Viral Epidemics Sweep Globe

Chronically ill, virally infected human beings around the world pray for mercy and hope for a cure. I am one of those who have suffered for thirty years with Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. I have all of my 48 years of medical history documented including vaccinations given before I was a year old. I physically collapsed the first time in 1970 for nearly a year. This disease has been one of America's biggest cover-ups and is also called AIDS-minor by some American physicians and research teams in other countries.  I am a best-selling author with over two million books in print in 38 foreign countries and 17 languages. I am a part of the remaining ten percent of CFIDS patients who contracted the disease in the 1970's who have not been reclassified as terminal cancer patients or who have sadly committed suicide. In the past year, I have tested positive for 13 active viruses. Human Herpes Virus 6, Epstein-Barr Virus, Cytomegalavirus, and nine species of Coxsackie viruses as well as four recently active airborne Chlamydia viruses which have very high anti-body counts. These do not include the "stealth viruses" for which I have also tested positive. I have chosen to take on the duty of doing medical research to help others who did not contract the disease until the 1980's or later. I have been totally bedridden for eleven of the past thirty years. Although I am a fighter, there is presently no way to stop the hemorrhaging in my spleen, kidneys or my brain which has persisted for the last fifteen years.

   Although CFS can go into remission in some people, it is an incurable disease that has many links to other chronic illnesses including Fibromyalgia, Chronic Myofacial Pain Syndrome, and varying symptomatic brain disorders. In order to avoid public panic, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia have glossed over and covered up the infectious nature of the disease for over twenty years. The latest news from http://www.chronicillnet.org is that the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Jeffery P. Coplan, has apologized for diverting 7.5 million of dollars of the 12.9 million dollars that the United States Congress designated for CFS research, into research on other diseases. This misuse of funds means that many of us will die before any medical relief or cure is discovered. Much to the chagrin of the millions of sufferers of CFS, the apology was not enough.

   Dr. Anthony Komaroff of Harvard Medical School just published a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine which says that 75-267 people per 10,000 people in the United States now have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Those staggering numbers are rising as outbreaks continue in areas all over the country. The outbreak in Mojave, California that began in the mid-1990's has continued to claim the health of new victims to this day.

   The sufferers of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, and AIDS have at least one virus in common. That virus has been labeled Human Herpes Virus 6 by Harvard Medical School as well as the Institute for Viral Pathogenesis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Institute's lab, ViraCor Labs, run by Dr. Donald Carrigan and Dr. Konstance Knox, have found active HHV6 infection in 100% of the autopsy tissue samples of AIDS, MS, and CFS patients. Their research is covered in a new book called, "A Virus Within, A Coming Epidemic"; written by ABC medical science journalist, Nicholas Regush. The latest research shows that HHV6 was contracted by almost everyone before two years of age with the childhood illness called Roseola. The Roseola Virus becomes dormant until the immune system is overworked by illness or fighting other stress factors in life, then reactivates and makes people very ill.  The Virus Within also discusses the work of Dr. W. John Martin and other physicians who may have a broader view of the viral epidemics sweeping our planet. Dr. Martin's research shows that many of these diseases are linked to inoculations we received as children which contained live viruses.

   The report in the New Mexican, on the 12th of September, which denied that any Salk Vaccine contained Chimpanzee viruses is probably correct; unfortunately, it was the Green, Rhesus, Patas, and Cynomolgus Monkey kidney cells which were used in the 1950's Sabin's vaccine to replicate enough vaccine to eliminate Polio world-wide. One of the 26 contaminates detected is the non-human cytomegalovirus named SimianVirus 40. I know because I have that virus and was one of the one million people in America who received at least one contaminated dose of polio vaccine.

   Unfortunately, the label HHV6, variants A and B, limit the scope that Medical Research could embrace if it was fully understood that there are many other viruses that may also be present in these various viral diseases, which can also include Gulf War Syndrome. Those viruses have been named "Stealth Viruses" by  Dr. W. John Martin at the Center for Complex Infectious Diseases in Rosemead, California. Dr. Martin's research explains many of the earlier questions regarding Medical Researcher's inability to find the sources of CFS or MS. Recent discoveries by Reuters and reported by MSNBC have shown that viruses can replicate themselves outside of the cell. This is a huge breakthrough since it has been a long held belief that viral replication could only occur inside a human cell. RNA in the blood can be a new marker for detecting chronic disease. Electron microscopes are required to see many of the tiny viruses which are present in blood cultures and cannot be verified by traditional blood titer tests.

   The 1984-1986 outbreak of CFS in Incline Village, Nevada by Dr. Paul Cheney and Dr. Dan Peterson brought awareness of the epidemic to the public. Hillary Johnson wrote the book Osler's Web, Inside the Labyrinth of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic which tells of the struggle of these two doctors to get help from the CDC, National Institute of Health, and other agencies which are supposed to be serving the American Public. The disease spread rapidly to Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and nearby farm communities where the poor had no resources to get medical assistance. During the early 80's the disease was horribly misnamed "Yuppie flu" by arrogant doctors who could not find the sources of the disease. Today, researchers have found that Native Americans and African Americans are 80% more susceptible to the disease. Unfortunately, the poor are the last to receive medical help due to lack of resources and when they are seen by doctors, most physicians cannot recognize the multi-faceted symptoms presented by the patients as CFS. Like Multiple Sclerosis, CFS is a brain infection where the stealth viruses create punctate brain lesions or pinpoint holes. This condition is called "viral encephalopathy" and hundreds of children are dying of this disease in America every month. According to the article "First Do No Harm" by Neenyah Ostrom, most of the children had recently received inoculations of DPT or DPTH vaccine.

   For three decades, Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome patients have been told they are hypochondriacs and have responded by forming powerful patient support groups and lobbies to present their cases to the medical community and to congress. Like Gulf War Syndrome, the threat these diseases present is that many of the irreversible parts of these illnesses could be contributed to forced inoculations of service personnel or of school-age children. No one knew the consequences forty-five years ago of giving polio vaccine with live viruses. Many years later, hundreds of individuals find their health is totally destroyed. The recent tobacco company lawsuits could not hold a candle to the repercussions of a class-action lawsuit against the Pharmaceutical Industry or the government if the undeniable proof of contaminated vaccines or the interaction of multiple Gulf War inoculations given in a two day period eventually comes to light.

   Santa Fe is not a populous city and yet, my personal physician has treated 156 patients with CFS in his practice since 1988. He is only one of many doctors in our town. The Eldorado Sun, a local periodical, ran an article last month called, "Life After Death" which was the story of one CFS patient who had the disease for thirteen years. She could no longer tolerate the unrelenting physical pain, the environmental allergies or being an invalid. She followed all the steps of preparing family and friends for a year before she chose self-deliverance or assisted suicide. The article, written by her partner, expressed her own recovery and grieving process; as well as the need to accept that in some cases, self-deliverance is preferable to unbearable pain and suffering. The fact is that most Medical Doctors do not acknowledge the level of pain involved with long bouts of CFS. CFS patients are not usually considered eligible for pain management until the immune system finally succumbs to cancer.    This is a sad commentary on the state of our disease when 20% of CFS patients choose suicide after years of suffering, losing their jobs, then their homes, and finally their mates. Often times CFS patients are labeled as lazy by family because their doctors can't find out what is wrong and give up. The lack of compassion and glibness that is pushed on anyone with a chronic illness which is not fully understood is painful and wrong. The Hippocratic Oath insists that the physician "Do No Harm". Could it be time for Medical Community and the American Medical Association to re-think those values and to support the bright medical researchers who are making a difference, even if those researchers rock the boat of  former incorrect assumptions? Those brave and tenacious researchers represent the light at the end of the tunnel for all who are chronically ill.