CFS/ME and Retroviruses

New XMRV Study Not The First To Find a Retroviral Link

© Maija Haavisto Oct 10, 2009

Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a disabling neurological illness. New study suggests it might be caused by the retrovirus XMRV.

New study, published in the prestigious journal Science, found the retrovirus XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus) in 67% of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). Only 3.7% of the studied healthy controls harbored this infection. Later the researchers have reported up to 95% of patients test positive with antibody testing.

XMRV belongs to the group of gammaretroviruses and has previously been associated with prostate cancer. Little is known about most types of human retroviruses, aside from the best known one: HIV.

This is not the first time CFS/ME has been associated with a chronic viral infection - it used to be called "post-viral fatigue syndrome", after all. In studies CFS/ME has been connected with a variety of different viruses, including

• herpesviruses (especially Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus and HHV-6)
• enteroviruses (polioviruses, Coxsackie viruses, echoviruses)
• parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV-5)
• parvovirus B19
• various retroviruses

History of CFS/ME and Retroviruses

The study group of Elaine DeFreitas reported a link between CFS/ME and retroviruses back in 1991. This virus was most closely related to HTLV-2 (human T-lymphotropic virus 2), which belongs to a different group of retroviruses, deltaretroviruses. None of the healthy controls in the study showed evidence of this virus.

Immunovirologist Michael Holmes described retroviral activity in cells of CFS/ME patients as early as 1986. However, he did not elucidate on the type of the retrovirus. Another researcher John Martin reported finding a spumavirus type retrovirus in CFS/ME, also in the early 1990s.

Read more: http://chronic-fatigue-syndrome.suite101.com/article.cfm/cfsme_and_retroviruses#ixzz0TX8EYmAp

Related article: Study links virus to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Study Links Virus to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Posted: October 8, 2009

WASHINGTON—A virus recently linked to prostate cancer is a new suspect in chronic fatigue syndrome. U.S.scientists tested blood from 101 patients and found two-thirds carried it.

That does not mean the virus causes chronic fatigue, stressed the research published Thursday in the journal Science.

The team of scientists from the National Cancer Institute and Nevada's Whittemore Peterson Institute said it was possible the virus, named XMRV, was just "a passenger virus" that catches a ride in patients whose immune systems are weakened by chronic fatigue.

Moreover, the researchers found nearly 4 percent of healthy people carried the virus, too. That raises bigger questions about just what role this recently discovered virus — a relative of viruses that cause cancer in mice — may be playing in overall health.

"This suggests that several million Americans may be infected with a retrovirus of as-yet-unknown pathogenic potential," the researchers concluded.

A retrovirus is a kind of virus that permanently embeds in the body.

Various viruses have been linked to chronic fatigue over the years, only to fall by the wayside as potential culprits in the mysterious illness thought to afflict millions. It is characterized by at least six months of severe fatigue, impaired memory and other symptoms, but there's no test for it — doctors rule out other possible causes — and no specific treatment.

The XMRV virus is related to mouse leukemia viruses. No one knows how it arose or how people become infected. But another research team recently found the virus lurking in about a quarter of 200 prostate tumors — and in about 6 percent of noncancerous prostate samples they used for comparison.

"There is still much that we do not understand," including whether people with either disease just are more prone to infection, cautioned Tufts University microbiologist John Coffin in an accompanying editorial. Still, "further study may reveal XMRV as a cause of more than one well-known 'old' disease."

In Wikipedia you can read the following;

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV), sometimes shortened to Xenotropic MuLV-related virus, is a newly identified and provisionally named gammaretroviruswhich may be involved in the pathology of familial prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome. Its name refers to its similarity to xenotropic murine leukemia viruses, although it does show some substantial differences. It is thought to be linked to both prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome by ribonuclease L (RNase L), part of the cell’s natural defense against viruses. When activated, RNase L destroys RNA in an effort to halt viral gene expression.

Previous research has shown that R462Q mutation that results in a decreased level of RNase L function, was associated with more susceptible XMRV infection in men; however, a later study has found that XMRV infection typically occurred independent of the RNase L gene variation.^[1]

The virus was discovered in cancerous prostate tissues using a microarray containing samples of genetic material from over 1,000 viruses. The screen revealed the presence of a gammaretrovirus in a substantial number of the homozygous R462Q cells, but very few of the heterozygous or wild type cells. An expanded screen showed the virus present in 40% of men homozygous for R462Q and only 1.5% of those not, and also demonstrated that each case showed the same virus.^[2] In another study, the viral genome was reconstructed from prostatemRNA and used to infect prostate tissues in vitro. The researchers were able to show that RNase L deficient lines were more susceptible to infection.^[3] These data do not necessarily show that XMRV causes prostate cancer, but they do show that RNase L deficiency makes prostate tissue more susceptible to the virus. This in turn suggests the possibility of a link between the virus and the disease.

XMRV has been even more strongly implicated in chronic fatigue syndrome: according to a study published in Science people with CFS are 54 times more likely to be infected with XMRV than the average individual.^[4][5]

It has been suggested that XMRV could be sexually transmitted.^[6][7][8]

 

This is an interesting development, especially for me personally. I have battled CFS/ ME for 5 years and have been unable to work, my daily functioning is down by 80%. Before I got ill I worked fulltime, I raced on my bike for hours/ week, and I walked 2 hours/ day. Any news is good news!

David Cameron must fill the leadership vacuum left by Barack Obama

David Cameron must reject the folly of the Obama doctrine and follow the example of Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, writes Nile Gardiner.

Published: 5:14PM BST 07 Oct 2009 Telegraph

 

With every major poll pointing to a Conservative victory at the next election, it is highly likely that David Cameron, and not Gordon Brown, will represent British interests on the world stage in eight months’ time. However, as Cameron prepares for power he would do well to look across the Atlantic for a lesson in how not to lead in international affairs.

The Tory leader, like the mayor of London, is unashamedly an admirer of Barack Obama, whom he has described as “incredibly impressive”. It is natural that the relatively youthful and charismatic Cameron seeks to emulate Obama’s electoral success and winning message of “change”. But he must not let his personal enthusiasm for the US president blind him to his considerable failures as a world leader since taking office in January.

Barack Obama’s central failing in foreign policy has been his striking hesitation to project American global power and leadership, which in the eyes of America’s enemies and competitors translates as weakness and vulnerability. He has sacrificed US strength and influence on the altar of international popularity, as though the world were an extension of the stage of American Idol, and not a hugely dangerous place where the United States remains hated and reviled by those who seek its demise.

President Obama has gone out of his way to apologise for his country’s past at almost every opportunity on foreign soil, from Cairo to Prague to Strasbourg. The result has been the humiliation of the United States, and the growing perception of the president as an extremely naïve commander in chief who appears to be sacrificing the national interest to appease international opinion. Obama’s spectacularly awful address last month to the United Nations was rightly met with widespread derision in the US, and was embarrassingly followed by Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi’s admiring call for Obama “to stay forever as the president.”

Barack Obama has also shown a marked willingness to undermine US national sovereignty, with clear signs that he supports an array of supranational UN treaties and conventions, ranging from Law of the Sea to the Treaty of Rome, the statute that established the International Criminal Court. His administration cares little for British sovereignty either, enthusiastically backing further political, military and economic integration in Europe.

In every area, the Obama strategy is undermining American power. The White House’s hugely controversial strategy of engagement with rogue regimes has backfired spectacularly, with Iran and North Korea responding with even greater threats and aggression. Even the French now think Obama is weak in the face of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the menacing Mullahs of Tehran.

While currying favour with America’s enemies and cutting defence spending, Barack Obama has paid scant attention to maintaining or strengthening America’s key alliances, including NATO and the Anglo-American Special Relationship. His recent shameful surrender to Moscow over the installation of Third Site missile defences in Poland and the Czech Republic was viewed as an appalling betrayal by key US allies in eastern and central Europe.

It is vital that, as Prime Minister, Mr Cameron is prepared to enhance British power on the world stage, rather than weaken it, as Gordon Brown has consistently done. He should take a fundamentally different approach to that of Barack Obama, based upon an aggressively confident projection of British power, the defence of British sovereignty in Europe, increased spending on the Armed Forces, and the strengthening of transatlantic alliances.

Great Britain may no longer be a superpower, but it remains a world force and a powerful global player, despite the best efforts of the Labour government to gut the military and turn the UK into a province of Brussels. The Conservatives must look beyond the shores of Europe with a forward-looking foreign policy that projects global interests.

The world’s fifth biggest nuclear power, the UK is second only to the United States in terms of conventional military force projection and the ability to deploy thousands of troops on the far side of the world, with greater strategic reach than either China or Russia. The UK has the second largest deployment in Afghanistan, with almost as many personnel deployed as all other major European Union countries combined.

Britain is also a global economic powerhouse, with the City of London continuing to dominate as the world’s biggest financial centre, and UK foreign direct investment (FDI) sitting at number two in world rankings. With a rapidly rising population, the UK is on course to overtake Germany as the most populous country in Western Europe by 2060, with a population of over 75 million.

There is little doubt that David Cameron will seek a close partnership with his US counterpart if he enters Downing Street. This will be good for Britain and the Special Relationship. He must, though, avoid following the Obama foreign policy model, and demonstrate strong British leadership on key issues such as the Iranian nuclear crisis, the war in south Asia, and the fight against Islamist terrorism.

In contrast to the White House’s dithering, Cameron must support an increase in British troop numbers in Afghanistan with a clear-cut strategy to defeat the Taliban. There also has to be a firm commitment to the future of NATO as the guarantor of transatlantic security. A Cameron government should send an unequivocal signal to Moscow that London will back the further eastward expansion of the organization to include Georgia and Ukraine, and will oppose Russian attempts to intimidate its neighbours in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe.

President Obama’s naïve and weak approach to international affairs threatens to usher in the biggest decline of American global power since the days of Jimmy Carter, and has created a distinct leadership vacuum. In contrast, the next British Prime Minister should seek a resurgence of British power, with a foreign policy that projects pride and confidence in Britain’s great and distinguished past, as well as a firm commitment to the transatlantic alliance. David Cameron must reject the folly of the Obama doctrine and follow the example of Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in advancing real international leadership.

Nile Gardiner is the Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC

'Iran will blow up the heart of Israel'

By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP Oct 9, 2009 11:44

Article's topics: Iran,  Iranian Nuclear Threat

Iran will "blow up the heart of Israel" if the United States or the Jewish state attacked it first, a top official with Iran's most powerful military force, the Revolutionary Guard, warned Friday.

In this photo released by the Iranian semi-official Mehr News Agency, Revolutionary Guard's Zelzal missile is launched in a drill near the city of Qom, 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Teheran, Iran.
Photo: AP

SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region |  World

Cleric Mojtaba Zolnour, who is the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in the Guard, said that if a US or Israeli missile lands in Iran, Iranian missiles will hit Israel in retaliation.

"Should a single American or Zionist missile land in our country, before the dust settles, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel," Zolnour was quoted as saying by the state IRNA news agency.

In March, Iran's deputy army chief made similar remarks, warning that his country will eliminate Israel if it attacks the Islamic republic.

"Should Israel take any action against Iran, we will eliminate Israel from the scene of the universe," Gen. Muhammad Reza Ashtiani said at the time in Teheran.

Ashtiani claimed Israel was "very vulnerable" and dismissed allegations that Iran was worried about Israeli maneuvers.

"Due to its special conditions, Israel is very vulnerable in the region," he said. "The aggressors will face a crushing response."

Herb Keinon contributed to this report

Autism Explodes As Childhood Vaccines Increase

Amount of children suffering from brain disorder doubles since last government survey in 2003

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, October 5, 2009

Cases of autism amongst children have doubled since 2003 according to a government survey out today, highlighting once again the direct link between vaccines containing mercury and the brain disorder, as millions more parents give the green light for their kids to be injected with the thimerosal-containing H1N1 shot over the coming weeks.

“While research has suggested that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in American children was about 1 of every 150 children, a new government study estimates that the prevalence is more likely about 1 in every 91 children,” reports U.S. News & World Report.

“The study, which is published in the October issue of Pediatrics, estimated that 110 of every 10,000 U.S. youngsters will be diagnosed at some point in their lives with an autism spectrum disorder. That currently translates to about 673,000 American children with some form of autism, according to the study.”

Claims by the CDC and the Institute of Medicine, following a whitewash study that ignored previously verified evidence, that thimerosal, a mercury based preservative, has no causal relationship to skyrocketing cases of autism have been soundly rejected by top doctors and scientists ever since.

Epidemiologist Tom Verstraeten and Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado, both concluded that thimerosal was responsible for the dramatic rise in cases of autism but their findings were dismissed by the CDC.

Cases of autism in the U.S. have now increased by over 2700 per cent since 1991, which is when vaccines for children doubled, and the number of immunizations is only increasing. Just one in 2,500 children were diagnosed with autism before 1991, whereas one in 91 children now have the disease, up from one in 150 just six years ago.

A peer reviewed study by Dr. Mark Geier which appeared in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons showed that the IOM research was flawed because it was largely based on a Danish study by Anders Peter Hviid, which did not account for the fact that American children have a much higher mercury burden than children in Denmark.

“At the high levels (of thimerosal exposure), it is undeniable there is a causal relationship, and we have gone to high levels. Their studies, therefore are not relevant, I am not saying they are wrong, although there are many criticisms of it. It is just not relative to the US situation,” said Geier.

Geier’s study concludes that there is an increase of neurodevelopment disorders following the use of thimerosal containing vaccines.

Dr. Rashid Buttar, who has pioneered a new treatment for autistic children that removes mercury from their bodies, said the Institute of Medicine’s conclusion that mercury does not cause autism demonstrates the “complete absence of any desire to discover scientific truth at the supposed highest levels of medical academia.”

“When 31 children recover from a devastating disease by a simple transdermal treatment that detoxifies metals, then common sense dictates that perhaps metals are involved,” states Dr. Bob Nash the chairman of the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology (ABCMT) in regard to Dr. Buttar’s treatment.

“In 1977, a Russian study found that adults exposed to ethylmercury, the form of mercury in thimerosal, suffered brain damage years later. Studies on thimerosal poisoning also describe tubular necrosis and nervous system injury, including obtundation, coma and death. As a result of these findings, Russia banned thimerosal from children’s vaccines in 1980. Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain and all the Scandinavian countries have also banned the preservative,”writes Dawn Prate.

Mercury is classified by The Department of Defense as a hazardous material that could cause death if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin, and the EPA is now limiting mercury emissions from factories because the toxin “can damage the brain and nervous system and is especially dangerous to fetuses and small children,” but according to the CDC it’s perfectly safe to inject into your child’s bloodstream.

Despite concerns about thimerosal and mercury, thimerosal is an ingredient of the swine flu vaccine which is currently being rolled out for children all over the country.

“Some of the vaccine will be stored in multi-dose vials containing thimerosal, an antibacterial additive that contains mercury,” reported the Washington Post in an article about which groups will receive the swine flu vaccine first.

Indeed, the swine flu vaccine contains no less than 25,000 per cent the amount of mercuryconsidered safe.

Around 12,000 U.S. children were used as guinea pigs for the experimental swine flu vaccine also known to contain the dangerous ingredient squalene, which has been directly linked with cases of Gulf War Syndrome and a host of other debilitating diseases.

Squalene “contributed to the cascade of reactions called “Gulf War syndrome. (GIs developed) arthritis, fibromyalgia, lymphadenopathy, rashes, photosensitive rashes, malar rashes, chronic fatigue, chronic headaches, abnormal body hair loss, non-healing skin lesions, aphthous ulcers, dizziness, weakness, memory loss, seizures, mood changes, neuropsychiatric problems, anti-thyroid effects, anaemia, elevated ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate), systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Raynaud’s phenomenon, Sjorgren’s syndrome, chronic diarrhea, night sweats and low-grade fever,” according to Micropaleontologist Dr. Viera Scheibner.

Pharmaceutical companies can be assured that they won’t face reprisals for the many thousands of injuries and deaths that will inevitably occur as a result of exposing millions to mercury and squalene during a mass vaccination program, because the government has already acted to provide them with blanket immunity from lawsuits.

“Vaccine makers and federal officials will be immune from lawsuits that result from any new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius,” reported the Associated Press in July.

Watch a CBS News report on the new autism survey below.

 

HOW IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULURALISM DESTROYED DETROIT

By Frosty Wooldridge
October 5, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

For 15 years, from the mid 1970s to 1990, I worked in Detroit, Michigan. I watched it descend into the abyss of crime, debauchery, gun play, drugs, school truancy, car-jacking, gangs and human depravity. I watched entire city blocks burned out. I watched graffiti explode on buildings, cars, trucks, buses and school yards. Trash everywhere! Detroiters walked through it, tossed more into it and ignored it.

Tens of thousands and then, hundreds of thousands today exist on federal welfare, free housing and food stamps! With Aid to Dependent Children, minority women birthed eight to 10 and in once case, one woman birthed 24 kids as reported by the Detroit Free Press—all on American taxpayer dollarss. A new child meant a new car payment, new TV and whatever mom wanted. I saw Lyndon Baines Johnson’s “Great Society” flourish in Detroit. If you give money for doing nothing, you will get more hands out taking money for doing nothing.

Mayor Coleman Young, perhaps the most corrupt mayor in America, outside of Richard Daley in Chicago, rode Detroit down to its knees. He set the benchmark for cronyism, incompetence and arrogance. As a black man, he said, “I am the MFIC.” The IC meant ‘in charge’. You can figure out the rest. Detroit became a majority black city with 67 percent African-Americans.

As a United Van Lines truck driver for my summer job from teaching math and science, I loaded hundreds of American families into my van for a new life in another city or state. Detroit plummeted from 1.8 million citizens to 912,000 today. At the same time, legal and illegal immigrants converged on the city, so much so, that Muslims number over 300,000. Mexicans number 400,000 throughout Michigan, but most work in Detroit.

As the Muslims moved in, the whites moved out. As the crimes became more violent, the whites fled. Finally, unlawful Mexicans moved in at a torrid pace. You could cut the racial tension in the air with a knife! Detroit may be one our best examples of multiculturalism: pure dislike and total separation from America.

Today, you hear Muslim calls to worship over the city like a new American Baghdad with hundreds of Islamic mosques in Michigan, paid for by Saudi Arabia oil money. High school flunk out rates reached 76 percent last June according to NBC’s Brian Williams. Classrooms resemble more foreign countries than America. English? Few speak it! The city features a 50 percent illiteracy rate and growing. Unemployment hit 28.9 percent in 2009 as the auto industry vacated the city.

In this week’s Time Magazine October 4, 2009, “The Tragedy of Detroit: How a great city fell and how it can rise again,” I choked on the writer’s description of what happened.

“If Detroit had been savaged by a hurricane and submerged by a ravenous flood, we'd know a lot more about it,” said Daniel Okrent. “If drought and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we'd see it on the evening news every night. Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it — if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice. Top of Form

Bottom of Form

But Detroit, once our fourth largest city, now 11th and slipping rapidly, has had no such luck. Its disaster has long been a slow unwinding that seemed to remove it from the rest of the country. Even the death rattle that in the past year emanated from its signature industry brought more attention to the auto executives than to the people of the city, who had for so long been victimized by their dreadful decision-making.”

As Coleman Young’s corruption brought the city to its knees, no amount of federal dollars could save the incredible payoffs, kick backs and illegality permeating his administration. I witnessed the city’s death from the seat of my 18-wheeler tractor trailer because I moved people out of every sector of decaying Detroit.

“By any quantifiable standard, the city is on life support. Detroit's treasury is $300 million short of the funds needed to provide the barest municipal services,” Okrent said. “The school system, which six years ago was compelled by the teachers' union to reject a philanthropist's offer of $200 million to build 15 small, independent charter high schools, is in receivership. The murder rate is soaring, and 7 out of 10 remain unsolved. Three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans, unemployment in that city hit a peak of 11%. In Detroit, the unemployment rate is 28.9%. That's worth spelling out: twenty-eight point nine percent.”

At the end of Okrent’s report, and he will write a dozen more about Detroit, he said, “That's because the story of Detroit is not simply one of a great city's collapse. It's also about the erosion of the industries that helped build the country we know today. The ultimate fate of Detroit will reveal much about the character of America in the 21st century. If what was once the most prosperous manufacturing city in the nation has been brought to its knees, what does that say about our recent past? And if it can't find a way to get up, what does that say about our future?”

As you read in my book review of Chris Steiner’s book, $20 Per Gallon, the auto industry won’t come back. Immigration will keep pouring more and more uneducated third world immigrants from the Middle East into Detroit—thus creating a beachhead for Islamic hegemony in America. If 50 percent illiteracy continues, we will see more homegrown terrorists spawned out of the Muslim ghettos of Detroit. Illiteracy plus Islam equals walking human bombs. You have already seen it in the Madrid, Spain, London, England and Paris, France with train bombings, subway bombings and riots. As their numbers grow, so will their power to enact their barbaric Sharia Law that negates republican forms of government, first amendment rights and subjugates women to the lowest rungs on the human ladder. We will see more honor killings by upset husbands, fathers and brothers that demand subjugation by their daughters, sisters and wives. Muslims prefer beheadings of women to scare the hell out of any other members of their sect from straying.

Multiculturalism: what a perfect method to kill our language, culture, country and way of life.

Are the British Planning a Coup To Install Blair as EU President?

LaRouche October 2 2009

October 2, 2009 (LPAC)—According to The Sun, in case of a "Yes" victory in Ireland, the EU will appoint Tony Blair as President of Europe, a function introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. A "senior government source" told The Sun: "If we get a 'Yes' vote, it will all move very, very quickly. Tony could be named by the end of October." According to the Sun, Sweden (current EU presidency) wants a president named by the end of this month. The Sun quotes French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner saying that Blair is, for the moment, the only candidate. A "senior French diplomat" adds: "Who will dare say no to Tony Blair?" and plays down concerns about Blair's support for the Iraq War.

However, all this could work only if three circumstances materialize in October: 1. Yes victory in Ireland; 2. Czech ratification; 2. Polish ratification. At the moment, Czech ratification is beyond the horizon, as the Constitutional Court needs time to work through a verdict on the two challenges. A sort of "coup" scenario is hinted at by the FT: "Some EU officials hope that, if the Irish result is an emphatic Yes, [Czech President Vaclav] Klaus may surprise everyone with a prompt announcement that he will sign. There has even been talk in Brussels of a special ceremony bringing together Mr. Klaus and Lech Kaczynski, the Polish President, who has also delayed signing the charter."

Is H1N1 Swine Flu Really A Virus...Or Is It A Bacteria?

By Lawrence Broxmeyer, MD 10-2-9

ABSTRACT

On June 3rd, 2009 in Global Research, a curious article by F. William Engdahl appeared entitled "Sarkozy's Secret Plan for Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccination". In it Engdahl plainly states that " The only problem with the Swine Flu (H1N1) Vaccine, is that to date, neither WHO nor the US Government's Center for Diseases Control (CDC) have succeeded to isolate, photograph with an electron microscope, or chemically classify the H1N1 Influenza A virus". Furthermore there was no scientifically published evidence that French virologists have done so either. Therefore, mentioned Engdahl, "To mandate a vaccination for a putative (supposed or assumed to exist) disease that has never been characterized is dubious to say the least."

 

Engdahl wasn't finished. "Even more bizarre is the admission by the US Government's Food and Drug Administration, an agency responsible for the health and safety of its citizens, that the 'test' approved for premature release to test for H1N1 is not even a proven test. More to the point", continues F. William Engdahl, "there is no forensic evidence in any of the deaths reported to date that has been presented that proves scientifically that any single death being attributed to H1N1 Swine Flu virus was indeed caused by such a virus."

 

Therefore, all that is H1N1 does not glitter, at least with respect to the tireless efforts of Virologists, Epidemiologists and Health Officials to stake claim that the current "flu-like illness" pandemic is tied to "Influenza".

 

Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are fully aware of a far more serious and ongoing tuberculosis Pandemic in the world today. Yet they choose to downplay the link, disregarding the similar flu-like symptoms tuberculosis often begins with. Despite this, and with regards to the present TB Pandemic, WHO freely admits that there were more than 9 million new cases of TB worldwide, and approximately 1.8 million deaths from the disease in 2007, the most recent year for which data are available. The World Health Organization estimates that there are presently 13.7 million people living with TB. An infectious disease, TB has been on the rise since the 1980s. About one-third of the world's population, or two billion people, carry the TB bacteria.

 

The "H" and "N" of influenza sub-typing, revolves around two glycoproteins called Hemagglutin (H) and Neuraminidase (N), both of which can be, and are, associated with infectious diseases such as the minuscule, viral forms of tuberculosis, a disease which ought to be high on the differential diagnosis for 'flu-like illness' . Since August, 2008, a Medline study in the Journal of Clinical Biochemistry showed that sputum neuraminidase levels over 1.0 mU per mL were proven associated with having tuberculosis in 92% of cases, previous to which bacteria closely related to TB were shown, through crystallization, to produce the same protein neuraminidase used to subtype 'Influenza'. Furthermore, as of 2006, it has become obvious in Menozzi's study that similar to Influenza, Tuberculosis not only uses Hemagglutin to attach to the lung's epithelial cells it invades, but requires Hemagglutin for dissemination of the disease to the rest of the body.

Furthermore, Khomenko's 1993 study, showed that the explosive contagiousness of just such influenza-like forms of tuberculosis are exactly the stuff that previous epidemics and pandemics could have been made of. Khomenko was cited by Nobel nominee Lida Mattman in her textbook prior to her untimely death last year. That is exactly why, that in response to the present world "flu" pandemic, Japan's Health Ministry's Tuberculosis Infection Diseases Control Division deputy director Takeshi Enami went hand in hand with Yoshio Nanba, director of The Office of Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response, to attend a news conference in Tokyo on May 1, 2009.

 

Masked Soldiers In City, Circa 1918

AMERICA'S TAKE

But back in the US, the CDC and NIH seem to feel differently, ignoring everything but "the virus". There was much the same "Influenza" talk when in 1990, a new multi-drug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis outbreak took place in a large Miami municipal hospital. Soon thereafter, similar outbreaks in three New York City hospitals left many sufferers dying within weeks. By 1992, approximately two years later, drug-resistant tuberculosis had spread to seventeen US states, with mini-epidemics in Florida, Michigan, New York, California, Texas, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania and was reported, not by the American, but the international media, as out of control. Viral forms of swine, avian and human TB can be transmitted from one species to another. By 1993 the World Health Organization (WHO), proclaimed tuberculosis a global health emergency.1

 

1918 AND TODAY

No one can deny the similarities between the onset of the 1918 epidemic and that of today, yet a Press Release, issued on August 19, 2008, by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), contains a striking finding and conclusion: The 20 to 40 million deaths worldwide from the great 1918 Influenza ("Flu") Pandemic were NOT due to "flu" or a virus, but to pneumonia caused by massive bacterial infection." 2 Subsequently, a study published in JAMA by Talbot and Moore3 in 2000 showed that Mexican immigrants to the US have the highest case rates for tuberculosis among foreign born persons. Mexico is the country where Swine Flu deaths were first documented.

 

The research of Lawrence Broxmeyer MD first proclaimed4 that the 1918 pandemic was due to bacteria, particularly mutant forms of flu-like fowl, swine, bovine, and human tuberculosis (TB) bacteria

http://drbroxmeyer.netfirms.com/001pdfBIRDFLUEDITORIALPUBLISHED.pdf 

These forms of tuberculosis are often viral-like, mutate frequently and can "skip" from one species to another. Moreover the antibodies from such viral TB forms react in the compliment fixation and later "viral" assays.5 They also grow on cultures which are supposed to grow only viruses.

 

In a supportive 16-page-paper which appeared in Population and Development Review, University of California demographers Andrew Noymer and Michael Garenne came up with convincing statistics showing that undetected tuberculosis may have been the real killer in the 1918 flu epidemic. 6

 

THE ROOTS OF HISTORY

Noymer's hypothesis stands sound against history. Few flu "experts" are aware that in medical texts printed circa 1918 "Influenza" was attributed not to a virus but a bacteria called Mycobacterium influenzae, discovered by Pfeiffer7 and Canon in 1892......not exactly a coincidence since Richard Pfeiffer worked, at one time, for Robert Koch, the discoverer of tuberculosis, a disease also caused by another bacillus called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Both mycobacteria stained best with carbol-fuchsin, a bacterial stain commonly used in the staining of mycobacteria as it has an affinity for the mycolic acids found in their cell walls. Mycobacteria such as tuberculosis are particularly deadly because they share properties of the fungi ("myco-") as well as bacteria. TB was, not all that long ago, referred to as "captain of the men of death". And it never lost its potential to kill.

 

Mycobacterium influenzae was considered by most to be the cause of influenza until 1933. But there were serious diagnostic problems with Mycobacterium influenza. Stengel and Fox8 warned about them in their widely quoted W.B. Saunder's 1915 version of "A Textbook of Pathology". Problems with identification revolved mainly in that although the bacterial influenza occurred abundantly in the sputum of flu patients at first, it decreased in quantity as the cases advanced. And when purulent expectoration stopped, whether the disease was still active or not, Mycobacterium influenzae "disappears entirely".8

 

In 1933 English physicians Wilson Smith, Christopher H. Andrewes, and Patrick P. Laidlaw9 removed secretions from the throat of a humans with flu-like symptoms thought to have "influenza", and then filtered out a suspected infectious agent, which by virtue of the fact that it went through a filter was falsely proclaimed, from the onset, to be "a virus". Injecting it into ferrets, the ferrets then developed the same flu-like symptoms which Smith, Andrews and Laidlaw summarily declared as "influenza". In addition Sir Christopher Andrewes suggested, with the help of Burnet and Bang, that the term "myxovirus", meaning "mucous virus", be incorporated into a family name for the Influenzas. This, one imagines, was because the organism came from mucous secretions.

 

But to government pathologist and pioneer physician/researcher William M. Crofton, who by virtue of his office as County pathologist had examined some of Laidlaw's human "Flu" samples, Laidlaw's entire study was flawed. Crofton found Laidlaw's Flu samples to be laced with the bacillus Mycobacteria influenzae, which by then had been renamed Haemophilus Influenzae. To Crofton this bacilli was the common denominator for the Pandemic of 1918 he had witnessed, although the bacteria could be accompanied by an array of opportunistic organisms such as Staph and Strep. Crofton publically and personally confronted and challenged Laidlaw to come to his laboratory for the proof that his Influenza samples weren't viral. Crofton was convinced by the confirmation of scientists like Calmette at Pasteur regarding how certain forms of tuberculosis, appearing both minuscule and viral, could pass through the smallest of filters. Crofton himself then established that tuberculosis could disappear into tissues as viruses did, and then go through filters which stopped cold even most of those "now invariably called viral disease". "Surely, then", Crofton concluded, "Tuberculosis has more right to be considered a true virus than these."10 So, at a time when viral forms of TB where scantily being documented, Crofton struggled to link H. Flu with the TB it so often infected in coordination with, as historical and political momentum carried Laidlaw's study through for posterity. A great opportunity was missed to correct the record.

 

Frank Macfarlane Burnet was the first to grow "Influenza" in a laboratory setting; in 1940 he grew influenza in embryonated chicken eggs, using the allantoic sac. He obviously considered such a technique "Influenza" specific, never bothering to consider that such an allantoic site might also be an excellent site for culturing the viral or Cell-Wall-Deficient (CWD) forms of tuberculosis and the mycobacteria. Viral TB, in fact grows there as early as 6 hours after introduction into such a place in chicken embryos.11

Furthermore, some of the filamentous forms of tuberculosis mentioned by Corper12 appear similar to those attributed to ''Influenza'' by biochemist and Influenza guru Burnet.13

 

It wasn't because Burnet didn't know that bacteria could assume viral forms. The first, and for a time the only virologist in Australia, it was Burnet who discovered bacteria in viral forms of Q-fever14. And in that same paper, proclaiming Virology as an Independent Science , and after admitting that viruses, including influenza, are composed of the same sorts of material as bacteria, Burnet struggles to differentiate Influenza by the fact that it ''probably has no DNA'' and was therefore exclusively RNA.(Ibid.). But, according to Xalabardar, some cell-wall-deficient mycobacterial forms also are exclusively RNA. Furthermore, points out Xalabarder, such cell-wall-deficient tubercular forms are true antigens, all of which, similar to Influenza, induce the production of specific antibodies detectable by complement fixation tests, such as those originally used to detect Influenza.5

 

CONCLUSION

In a landmark study15, Dr. Robert Donaldson, working out of the Pathological Society of Great Britain had ruled out that the mycobacteria now referred to as H. Influenza by itself was behind 1918, perhaps because of its disappearing nature. Yet at the same time he quickly added that there wasn't "the slightest shred of evidence" that the disease was due to a "virus" or influenza. Nor was Donaldson ever able to refute Broxmeyer and Noymer's feelings that TB was behind the many deaths in the pandemic, specifically because it is well known that secondary bacterial infections, be they from opportunistic Haemophilus influenza or any other common bacteria, are a common secondary manifestation in TB-infected lungs. During the pandemic, one-third of patients who had Haemophilus influenza were also found to have tuberculosis - keeping in mind, as always, that many other cases with TB went undiagnosed.

 

In order to understand why we have this emphasis by those virologists invested in a 'killer flu' in the US today, one must look back historically at the science itself. Until the late 1940s influenza 'viruses' were studied as infections, which, although filterable, were conceived of as analogous to bacteria, a kind of ultra or viral-like bacteria. Not to be deterred, and still seeing Influenza as a great opportunity for virology, in 1941 virologist Hirst16 claimed that influenza ''virus'' could agglutinate (or clot) red blood cells of fowl and other animal species. Such a hemagglutinin discovery, in turn, led to fast assays of what is thought to be Influenza. The "H" in H1N1 comes to us through Hirst, who showed that ''virus'' particles first adsorbed to the red cells and, after a certain time, eluted again as a result of what could be interpreted as an enzymatic reaction. But 6 years later, Middlebrook and Dubos17 made this seem nothing more than a cheap hat trick by showing that similarly red blood cell agglutination could be produced by sera from patients with tuberculosis. Takahashi and Ono18,19 reviewed similar red cell agglutination occurring in the presence of tuberculous serums.

 

As Influenza historian van Helvoort20 aptly pointed out, indeed, in the 1930s and 1940s the concept of 'filterable viruses', including Influenza, were subject to such criticism that Virology's very foundations were threatened. Dogmatized statements like those coming from pioneer virologist Andre Lwoff in 1957 : ''Viruses should be considered as viruses because viruses are viruses''21 were totally unacceptable, and did little to help the situation. So it was in 1952 that Cornelius P. Rhoads, Director of Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City, remarked in a conference introduction that the term ''viruses'', such as that of Influenza, had achieved ''a high professional status with doubtful credentials''.22

 

Perhaps in his authoritative text, The Pathogenesis of Tuberculosis, Johns Hopkin's head of pathology, Arnold Rich summed things up best:

In relation to the question of the effect of influenza upon tuberculosis, it should be pointed out that in many cases in which pulmonary tuberculosis has been thought to have followed an attack of influenza it is altogether probable that the supposed attack of influenza was, in reality, a manifestation of an existing tuberculous infection; for tuberculoprotein, whether absorbed from a spreading lesion or injected into the body, can cause constitutional symptoms (fever, malaise, headache, joint pains, anorexia, prostration) quite like those of influenza.23

 

As Professor Hans Rosling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8bUtbODV-Q 

has so aptly pointed out: during the initial 13 days that WHO started gaining data on Swine Flu Deaths, April 24-May 06, 2009, 31 people died of Swine Flu. 29 of these were in Mexico and 2 in the US. During this same 13 day window, 63,000 people, around the world died of tuberculosis. http://www.who.int/research/en

What we have today, is a pandemic with "flu-like" symptoms. And flu-like symptoms doesn't necessarily mean "Influenza" is its underlying cause.

Readers interested in the subject of Influenza/TB can also go to Dr. Ron Paul, MD's take at:

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22507.htm

Other relevant links include:also applicable to the current Swine Flu epidemic include:

http://www.frequencyfoundation.com/2009/07/bird-flu-influenza-and-1918-case-for.html

And:  http://www.frequencyfoundation.com/2009/07/swine-flu-do-we-really-have-right.html#links

 

REFERENCES

Talay F Kumbetli S Altin S Factors associated with Treatment Success for Tuberculosis Patients: a Single Center's Experience in Turkey   Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 61,25-30, 2008.

DM Morens et al. Predominant role of bacterial pneumonia as a cause of death in pandemic influenza: Implications for pandemic influenza preparedness. The Journal of Infectious Diseases DOI: 10.1086/591708 (2008).

Talbot EA Moore M McCray E Binkin NJ Tuberculosis Among Foreign-Born Persons in the United States, 1993-1998 JAMA. 2000;284:2894-2900.

Broxmeyer L. Bird flu, influenza and 1918: The case for mutant Avian tuberculosis. Med Hypotheses. 2006;67(5):1006-15. Epub 2006 Jun 27

Xalabardar C, Formas L. Publicaciones Del Instituto Antituberculoso Francisco Moragas. 7, Barcelona; 1970. p. 1 83.

Noymer A, Garenne M. The 1918 influenza epidemic's effects on sex differentials in mortality in the United States. Popul Dev Rev 2000;26(3):565 81.

Chester FD  A Manuel of Determinative Bacteriology Macmillan & Company Ltd, London 1901 p.351. 401ppgs.

Stengel A Fox H A text-book of Pathology 6th Edition Philadelphia and London WB Saunders & Co 1915 1039 ppgs P298

Smith W, Andrewes C, Laidlaw P. A virus obtained from influenza patients. Lancet 1933;2:66 68.

Crofton WM The True Nature of Viruses 2nd Edition, Staple Press, London 166pgs 1939

(Balan V.F. (1991): The use of chicken embryos for the culture of L-forms of mycobacteria tuberculosis . Problemy Tuberkuleza i Bolezni Legkikh, 2, 59 60.)

Corper HC. In discussion following mutation forms of the tubercle bacillus. JAMA 1926; 9(October):1210 11.

Burnet F. Filamentous forms of influenza virus. Nature1956; 177(4499):130.

Burnet F. Virology as an independent science. Med J Australia 1953; 40(223):841 5.

Donaldson R. The bacteriology of influenza: with special reference to Pfeiffer's Bacillus. In: Crookshank, editor. Influenza. London: Heinemann; 1922. p. 139 313. 144.

Hirst GK. The agglutination of red cells by allantoic fluid of chick embryo infected with influenza virus. Science ;xciv:22 3. 1941.

Pound A. Observation on the agglutination and haemolysis of red cells treated with extracts of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: an evaluation of methods. J Pathol Bacteriol 1952;64(1):131 43.

Takahashi Y, Ono K. Hemagglutination reaction by the phosphatides of the tubercle bacillus. Kekkaku no Kenkyu (Tuberculosis Res) 1957;7:1.

Takahashi Y, Ono K. Study on the passive hem agglutination reaction by the phosphate of M. tuberculosis. 1. The reaction and its specificity. Am Rev Resp Dis 1961;83(2):

van Helvoort T. History of virus research in the 20th century: the problem of conceptual continuity. Hist Sci1994;32(2):185 235.

Lwoff A. The concept of virus. The third Marjory Stephenson Memorial Lecture. J Gener Microbiol 1957;xvii:239 53.

Rhoads CP. Introduction {to a conference on viruses as causative agents in cancer}. Ann NY Acad Sci 1952;liv:872 3.

Rich, AR  The Pathogenesis of Tuberculosis  2nd Printing. Charles C. Thomas Publisher. Springfield, Illinois 1946. 1008 pps.P.627

 

Lawrence Broxmeyer, MD

Whitestone, New York 11357

nyinstituteofmedicalresearch@yahoo.com

New PETA investigation exposes suffering in dairy industry

(These guys do an amazing job, join their cause, I did!)

After blowing the whistle on the abuse that she saw, a wonderful woman working at a Pennsylvania dairy factory farm went undercover for PETA for months. This allowed us to investigate and record the suffering of cows and calves at this Land O'Lakes, Inc., supplier.
Hundreds of cows on this factory farm were subjected to routine cruelty. Our investigator witnessed lame cows struggling to stand and walk as they were herded to the milking machines; cows who could not stand on their own being kicked, jabbed in the spine with a blade, and electro-shocked; and dying cows who were denied even a mercy killing to relieve their pain.
For these cows and all the other poor animals who are being abused in farm sheds and crates, PETA—and you—are the only hope. Please help us confront the hidden cruelty inflicted on animals by donating online to our Factory Farming Challenge, and have your gift doubled dollar for dollar.
As you may know, a group of PETA's most dedicated friends has put up $200,000 of their own money and challenged us to raise a full $400,000 to combat the suffering of animals abused and exploited on factory farms. We're already 46% of the way there, but this special challenge will end in only a few short weeks. We will only reach our goal if enough caring members like you act today.
The meat, egg, and dairy industries don't want anyone to know the kind of hellholes factory farms are and how deeply and routinely animals suffer on them. But they can't stop PETA—with your help—from exposing their cruelty. Our investigation of this Pennsylvania dairy farm has enabled millions of people to see with their own eyes the suffering that goes into every glass of milk. And it has already helped us save at least two lives.
When our investigator first saw a sweet little calf named Jerry, the animal was in pitiful condition. His legs were deformed, and he was extremely thin, infested with lice, and nearly blind—most likely as a result of pinkeye, a bacterial infection that's often spread in the filthy conditions on factory farms.
Peter, another calf on the same farm, was found nearly unconscious and close to death. He was just skin and bones and was covered in ringworm fungus. Peter's plaintive moo was a gurgled moan because of a bacterial pneumonia that's common on dairy factory farms, and his skin was raw and scalded from being soaked in urine and feces in the filthy pen that he could not escape from.
Today, Peter and Jerry are thriving at a peaceful sanctuary where, thanks to your support, PETA pays for upkeep and the calves' monthly care. Their coats are growing thick and shiny, their bodies are filling out, and they can eat fresh grass and breathe clean air for the first time in their lives. Both Jerry's and Peter's health is steadily improving, and they are now the very best of friends.
I wish we could rescue all the hundreds of suffering cows from this dairy factory farm, and there's no knowing how many animals will be saved because of this case. Of course, it's important to point out that we can stop the worst abuses of cows and other animals used for food by making their plight known to people around the world. But we can't do it without you.
I hope you will take this opportunity to support our Factory Farming Challenge with the most generous contribution that you are able to give. Your gift will have double the impact when it comes to PETA's efforts to help people see exactly what happens to animals like Jerry and Peter in these hellish places.
Thank you. Your commitment means the world to us and the animals we serve.
Kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President
P.S. Animal abuse can't be stopped if it remains hidden. Your support helps PETA tear down the factory farm walls and lets the light in so that public pressure will result in meaningful changes in the lives of billions of individual animals. Please donate today to have your gift doubled and to help us expose the hideous abuse inflicted on animals.

Europe's War on Free Speech

September 17, 2009

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Freedom of speech around the world has been a hallmark of Christian civilization, but today there is less and less freedom to criticize Islam.
In Denmark, a 15-year-old Danish boy faces prison time for distributing leaflets warning that the country could someday become a Muslim nation and that he thinks that is a bad thing. A Danish prosecutor called the leaflets "hate speech."

Yet, across the water in Sweden, it was not hate speech when a leading national newspaper printed an article a few weeks ago claiming that Israeli soldiers harvest and sell organs from dead Palestinians. Some say that claim amounts to the anti-Semitic Jewish blood libel, that Jews commit human sacrifice on non-Jews.

The Swedish government, which defended the newspaper, said it was free speech.
Welcome to Europe, where many say the difference between free speech and hate speech is dictated by left-wing political correctness and fear of Islam.
"Free speech is coming under increasing pressure by the day," Lars Hedegaard, head of the International Free Press Society, told CBN News.
It does not matter if the criticism is factual.

For instance, Islam teaches that when Mohammed was 52, he consummated his marriage to a 9-year-old girl. But when Austrian politician Susanne Winter said that, in today's world, Mohammed would be considered a child molester, she was convicted of hate speech.
Dutch Parliament member Geert Wilders is awaiting trial on the charge of "inciting hatred and discrimination." In Wilders' short film about Islamic violence "Fitna," he simply reprinted violent verses from the Koran itself and added video of radical sermons and photos of Islamic terrorism.

"He's being accused of hate speech for repeating in a film what radical imams and religious leaders have been saying about their own motives and their beliefs," Hedegaard said. "They're not being prosecuted for hate speech. He's being prosecuted for repeating it."
But there is another force behind the push to censor critics of Islam -- the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference. Only the United Nations is larger.
"In 2008, the Organization of the Islamic Conference laid out a 10-year plan for suppression of free speech and for the introduction of laws that would prevent criticisms of religions and the reading of Islam," Hedegaard explained.

The OIC calls itself the collective voice of the world-wide Muslim "ummah," or nation. It has its own declaration of human rights, called the Cairo Declaration.
The document states "All rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Shari'ah," which is strict Islamic law.
Marshall Sana, an Islamic expert at Barnabas Fund, said the OIC "actually wields an enormous amount of influence."

"That's been evident the last few years with perhaps its number one agenda item, which is combating 'Islamophobia' as they call it, or the defamation of religion," he added.
The OIC calls Islamophobia "the worst form of terrorism" and a threat to world peace.
"That has been a project under construction by the OIC, to develop the concept of 'Islamophobia' as any criticism upon Mohammed, the Koran, the fundamentals of Islam, but now it's being coupled with racism," Sana said.

The Organization of the Islamic conference is now a major force in the United Nations. For four straight years, the U.N. has adopted a non-binding OIC resolution banning the defamation of religion.
Observers say the ultimate goal of the OIC is to get a U.N. law criminalizing criticism or blasphemy of religion, even though Wilders said that in the Muslim world, respect for religion only goes in one direction.

 
"Look at how Christians today are treated in countries where Islam is dominant," he said. "Try buying a Bible in Saudi Arabia. Try to visit a church in Iran. Try to do anything Christian in an Islamic country. There is no room for it. They are intolerant."

Supporters of Wilders said free speech itself is on trial, and if Wilders loses, it will be the ultimate religious, political, and cultural capitulation by the Dutch government to Islam.
The Wilders case is just a small part of a growing worldwide phenomenon-- the censorship of any speech that criticizes Islam.
"You'd better care because this is a road circus that's coming your way," Hedegaard warned Americans.
Wilders agreed, saying, "Don't think this won't happen to you. Don't think it won't happen to the United States."
CBN News Original Broadcast Date: September 11, 2009.