Comments on: Did the Smallpox Vaccine Slow the Spread of HIV? http://rangelmd.com/2010/05/did-the-smallpox-vaccine-slow-the-spread-of-hiv/ Because opinions are like sphincters. Everybody has one. Thu, 16 May 2013 23:58:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: RangelMD http://rangelmd.com/2010/05/did-the-smallpox-vaccine-slow-the-spread-of-hiv/comment-page-1/#comment-650 RangelMD Wed, 19 May 2010 17:39:00 +0000 http://rangelmd.com/?p=541#comment-650 Great article. I agree, a continuous endemic infection like smallpox with a relatively high childhood fatality rate is certainly a strong evolutionary selector for the CCR5 chemokine receptor mutation that confers HIV resistance. But the low population expression of this mutation (10%) combined with the short time between the swift eradication of smallpox and the cessation of vaccination programs does not seem to be enough of a generation time to explain the connection. Though the coincidence does suggest that it is this CCR5 receptor that may be the target of smallpox vaccine induced Abs.

Thanks for the heads up!

]]> By: Coyle http://rangelmd.com/2010/05/did-the-smallpox-vaccine-slow-the-spread-of-hiv/comment-page-1/#comment-649 Coyle Wed, 19 May 2010 16:20:06 +0000 http://rangelmd.com/?p=541#comment-649 Interesting. You may have also heard that there is some evidence that a mutation, CCR5delta32, which can prevent HIV infection, is also associated with smallpox. PMCID: PMC299980 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC299980/?tool=pmcentrez

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