Subject: Hepatitis B Vaccine Doesn't Transmit AIDS, Studies Say
Date: Published: 12/14/84 52 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones Inc. 

   Hepatitis B Vaccine
   Doesn't Transmit
   AIDS, Studies Say
    ---
   Widespread Fear of a Link
   Has Sharply Limited Use
   Of Merck & Co. Product
    ---
   By Michael Waldholz
   Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

   New studies indicate that the only vaccine available for
preventing hepatitis B doesn't transmit the virus associated
with AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome.  A
widespread fear that the vaccine might carry the AIDS virus
has sharply limited the vaccine's use.
   The information was presented by researchers during a
conference in Washington, D. C., that brought together a
number of top public health officials.  They warned that the
incidence of heptitis B is rising despite the availability
for the past two years of a vaccine regarded as being
effective in preventing the disease.  The conference was
underwritten by Merck & Co., which developed and markets the
vaccine.
   Officials of the national Centers for Disease Control said
at the meeting that since 1978, when they began a program to
fight hepatitis B, the incidence of the disease has risen to
a current 68 cases per 100,000 people from 40 cases per
100,000 people.  Merck says only about 20% of the nine million
people considered at risk have taken the vaccine.
   The suggestion that Merck's vaccine doesn't contain the
AIDS virus is contained in several recent experiments.  In one
test, Merck treated blood containing the AIDS virus with the
same chemicals it uses to produce the hepatitis B virus and
found no evidence of the AIDS virus.
   Merck produces its vaccine from the blood of hepatitis B
carriers, a percentage of whom are homosexual men who might,
many believe, also be carriers of AIDS. Although Merck has
claimed its production method destroys the agent responsible
for AIDS, it hasn't quelled concern among health
professionals and others that the vaccine might be tainted.
Few hospitals or local public health programs have encouraged
the vaccine's use.

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