Salk Vaccine as AIDS Therapy

Based on an unproven theory, two scientists have applied for a patent on a novel treatment for AIDS: repeated injections of the Salk polio vaccine.

Allen D. Allen, director of research at Algorithms Inc., a biomedical firm in Northridge, said in an article to be published in June in the journal Medical Hypotheses that such hyperimmunization could prolong the lives of AIDS patients.

He said a small number of patients with AIDS and the AIDS-related complex improved after getting repeated injections of the Salk vaccine containing inactivated polio virus cells.

Allen said he and Dr. Ferris Pitts, a USC professor of psychiatry, have given a dozen patients polio shots every other week, and that one AIDS patient has lived for 18 months on the regimen.

Allen theorizes the polio shots work by general stimulation of the immune system.

But Dr. Samuel Broder, a leader of research efforts on AIDS treatments at the National Cancer Institute, warned that any experimental attempt to stimulate the immune system could also theoretically stimulate the AIDS virus.