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[Gillies, Lindsay]

> Paul writes:
>
> >The 1970's was the age of Eros, but it was a bad mix. It went like
> >this: Eros + ease of travel + man's movement into rainforest = HIV.
> >That's how the author of the _Coming Plague_ computes it. I concur.
> >But it was fun.
>
> Not to quibble, but...
>
> Take a quarter million GIs (by defnition, sexed-up figures--nothing like
> the hint of death to turn a guy on); transport them, for free; to the
> jungles of SE Asia and the brothels of nearby R&R locales. But no HIV!
> Some interesting variations of syphilis and gonorrhea, granted, but not
> the killer plague.  _Coming Plague_ is a nifty way to make some bux, but
> let's not confuse it with facts or anything!

[P responds:]
Haven't read the book myself. Don't think my friend (or the author?) was
talking about GI travel particularly. It was people visiting African
rain forests and coming into contact with those famous "green" monkeys.
 ------------------------------------------------
Another interesting fact is that many of us born in the 50s and later (age 
of Saints Sabin and Salk) have gotten contact with the green monkeys via the 
polio vaccine.  This was manufactured off green monkey kidney cells, 
partially stepped on with formaldehyde.  Some researchers feel that more 
than just sem-killed polio virus was introduced into our viral ecology in 
this fashion.  Green monkeys turn out to carry (but are resistant to) a 
number of interesting immunosuppressant  pathogens.

 -LindsayG