§ Mr. RostTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what continued observation there has been in the United Kingdom of the babies and others contaminated with SV40 in the late 1950s; and what proportion of those people now have AIDS.
§ Mr. MellorThere has been no separate continued observation of those people in the United Kingdom who might have received vaccine contaminated with SV40. We have relied on the results of studies in the United States of America.
§ Mr. RostTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if the results of any experiments conducted during preventive vaccination programmes have shown the human leukocyte type antigens (HL-A) in the immune response, both humoral and cellular, to be clearly linked to specific bacterial and viral antigens.
§ Mr. MellorI am not aware of any experiments conducted during preventive vaccination programmes to investigate HLA and bacterial and viral antigens.
§ Mr. RostTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if the two large studies referred to in his reply to the hon. Member for Erewash, 25 July 1988,Official Report, column 139, conducted in the United States of America on the contamination of polio vaccine by SV40 in the late 1950s and early 1960s referred to AIDS or carcinogenicity.
§ Mr. MellorAIDS had not been identified in the human population at the time the studies referred to were undertaken. The studies were directed to look for evidence of carcinogenicity in the population exposed to SV40.
§ Mr. RostTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what effort has been made to identify SV40 genomes in people with AIDS.
§ Mrs. RumboldI have been asked to reply.
No work has been done in the United Kingdom to identify SV40 genomes in people with AIDS, since there is no evidence that it gives rise to any untoward effects in normal individuals.