Open Letter to Dr Bijan Safai

AIDS Prophecy

Dear Dr Safai. 

In 1979 you wrote a paper 'Association of Kaposi's Sarcoma with Second Primary Malignancies', in which you said that 'Seroepidemiologic analyses have revealed  a specific serologic association with (KS and)  CMV'.

Later in the paper you state that: 

 'It  was  demonstrated that a  primary CMV  infection leads  to latency and re- activation, inducible by  allogenic stimulation and to persistent infection. The major additional components that influence these events included genetic susceptibility and immunologic responses. In KS patients, who are mainly adults, frequent (CMV) reactivation and  then heavy,  persistent (CMV) infection might occur  due to continuous  foreign  antigenic  stimulation, which  could  lead to an increased  synthesis of defective virions, multiple cell tropism and multiple cancers. Our study has confirmed a significant association be- tween KS and second primary malignancies of the lymphoreticular system, in which CMV frequently remains in a latent form. This would seem to strengthen the probability of related etiopathogenic mechanisms between the two neoplasms.' 

When the early GRID KS cases were seen by Laubenstein and Friedman-Kein, did you not mention to them that they fitted exactly your 1979 hypothesis? After all, these gay males were walking CMV incubators, were heavy users of Nitrite Inhalants, vasodilators, were very immunosuppressed and many had disseminated CMV and KS. 

I look forward to receiving your comments. 

Best wishes, 

Paul Franks