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SV40 stands for Simian Virus 40.
http://www.sv40foundation.org/
SV40 was the 40th virus found in rhesus monkey kidney cells when
these cells were used to make the polio vaccine. This virus
contaminated both the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) created by
Dr. Jonas Salk and the Oral or "Live" Polio Vaccine (OPV)
created by Dr. Albert Sabin.
In 1961, SV40 was discovered by Dr. Bernice Eddy of the National
Institute of Health, Division of Biologics when she took the
material used to grow polio vaccines and injected it into
hamsters. Tumors grew in the hamsters. Her discovery was
subsequently validated by Drs. Maurice Hilliman and Benjamin
Sweet of Merck.
Upon the discovery that SV40 was an animal carcinogen that had
found its way into the polio vaccines, a new federal law was
passed in 1961 that required that no vaccines contain this
virus. However, this law did not require that SV40 contaminated
vaccines be thrown away or that the contaminated seed material
(used to make all polio vaccines for the next four decades) be
discarded. As a result, known SV40 contaminated vaccines were
injected into children up until 1963. In addition, it has been
alleged that there have been SV40-contaminated batches of oral
polio vaccine administered to some children until the end of the
1990's.
The
Creation of the Oral Polio Vaccine
Type I has the
following lineage:
In 1941, Drs. Francis and Mack isolated the Mahoney poliovirus
from the pooled feces of three healthy children in Cleveland.
Dr. Salk then subjected the strain to passages through fourteen
living monkeys and two cultures of monkey testicular cultures.
In 1954, the strain (now called Monk14 T2) was given to Drs. Li
and Schaeffer who subjected the virus to nine more passages
through monkey testicular cultures.
Next, the strain (now called Monk14 T11) underwent fifteen more
passages in monkey testicular cultures, eighteen passages in
monkey kidney cells, two passages through the skin of living
rhesus monkeys, and additional passages through African Green
monkey skin and monkey kidney cell cultures. This strain was now
called MS10 T43 or LS-c.
In 1956, Dr. Sabin took this virus and passaged it through seven
cultures of African Green Monkey kidney cells.
That same year, the pharmaceutical company, Merck, Sharp & Dohme,
passed the strain (now called LS-c, 2ab/KP2) through a rhesus
monkey kidney cell culture.
The resulting material was called Sabin Original Merck (SOM) and
was provided to Lederle in 1960 as the seed material to
manufacture its polio vaccine.
Types II and
III were created in a similar fashion.
-- A.B. Sabin,
A.B. & L. Boulger, History of Sabin Attenuated Poliovirus Oral
Live Vaccine Strains. 1 J. BIOL. STAND. 115, 11518 (1973).
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