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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1989)
Just news DOWNEY INSURANCE AGENCY. INC. Typhoid vaccine cures AIDS, researcher says Food Front 9am to 9pm Daily NW T hurm an at 23rd Place 222-5658 Tri-Met Bus Routes 15 and 17 The City's Natural Grocery Portland. O R 97240 610 S.W. Broadw ay, #408 ( 503 ) 226-8327 J fl % JÉ 1 M a D l l Cu r O o Q f- z: < 1 o 3 a jé J É CÜ 1 H o C o m m u n ity O w n ed — O p en to All • • • • Complete Pharmacy Service Affordable Gifts Cosmetics Homemade Fudge “Just Off Highway 22 4” 7 0 0 0 Theissen Road M ilwaukie 6 5 9 -1 1 5 0 S o ft Celt Software, Inc. IBM, Amiga and Commodore Computer software sales and rentals If you have a computer need for education, business or entertainment we always have the newest available software for sale or preview. Find out what we can do for you! We are more than software, we have joysticks, mouses, modems, magazines and the lowest prices on quality 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" floppy disks. From hardware to" software - don’t worry, be happy - we re here. Just 5 minutes from Downtown Stop by and say "hi" to Eric and Joy 10910 NE Halsey 252-DISK (252-3475) Open every day 10 am - 9 pm Mail Order Available. ju st out • 6 • January 1989 Salvatore Catapano's cure is simple — multiple injections of typhoid vaccine to help stimulate the immune system B Y K . C . d e G U T E S very day newspaper reports, medical reports, government reports proffer new ‘ nope” to persons with AIDS. Headlines scream about this drug, that doctor, these vitamins. But one man. ignoring the hysteria and homophobia, plodded away meticulously and seems to have found an AIDS treatment for which the world has been waiting. Salvatore Catapano didn’t discover his treatment in the research labs of the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control, but rather, he discovered it in the basement laboratory of his Long Island home. Like his laboratory, Catapano’s cure is simple enough — multiple injections of typhoid vaccine to help stimulate the immune system. Catapano discovered the vaccine’s immuno- stimulating properties as a result of his cancer research. According to a report in Spin magazine, when Catapano first heard about the AIDS virus, he refused to believe that a biochemically inactive virus could cause death. Catapano — who spent 40 years testing and treating syphilitics — believed the immune suppression in AIDS patients not to be viral but bacterial. He maintained the suppression was caused by late staging syphilis and worsened by multiple ex posures and the misapplication of antibiotics and radiation. According to his hypothesis, HIV serves merely as a marker for severe immune suppression, induced in this case by syphilis. Syphilis camouflages itself well. Before the advent of antibiotics, skin lesions, rashes, strange pneumonias, and dementia were common, documented symptoms of late staging syphilis. Cause of death among most of these syphilitics was tuberculosis — an opportunistic infection. Now, nationwide, some 300 persons with AIDS are following Catapano’s protocol, 200 of whom are being treated by Catapano himself, in conjunction with Dr. Miguel Cima. Only one of the 200 patients Catapano and Cima have treated has died: a man who chose to stop eating when admitted to the hospital. Once the immune system is restored with the typhoid vaccine, a course of penicillin (used in the treatment of syphilis) should bring the AIDS patient into remission. Catapano qualifies his work by stating that “ to finish the treatment doesn't mean that someone will never be sick again, never have pneumonia or an infection. But, with their immune system restored, they will be able to handle it as they should.” Caution: those repeatedly reinfected with syphilis should not expect to live, no matter what course of treatment is used, warns Catapano. Physicians across the country, although skeptical about the syphilis-AIDS link, are reporting a fascinating discovery which confirms Catapano’s theory: after approxi mately 15 shots of the typhoid vaccine, a number of AIDS patients who had tested negative for syphilis began to manifest classic symptoms of the disease, usually the distinctive roseola rash. Consequently, the patients test positive for syphilis. After following the prescribed penicillin course, the symptoms dis appear and the patient’s tests become negative. Catapano’s protocol is patented — one of only three American patents ever granted for AIDS treatment. The patent states: * i t has been found that a complete immunization and remis sion of a person afflicted with AIDS may be E achieved by the administration of typhoid vac cine with no observed toxicity.” Word of the protocol’s success has spread, and doctors in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Cincinnati, Washington, D .C ., Miami, New York, Indianapolis, and Chesapeake, Virginia are licensed to use the protocol. Currently, there are no Oregon physicians following the Catapano protocol, according to Mimi Luther of CAP. Not surprisingly, CAP remains neutral as to the protocol’s effective ness. On the other hand, doctors at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) express skepticism, but are willing to admit the theory might be valid. Because there are no published studies documenting Catapano’s protocol, doctors have only been able to look at the situation superficially. Dr. Mark Loveless conducts studies for OHSU’s Infectious Disease Department and feels that the lack of good scientific investiga tion techniques within the field of immuno- stimulation makes any treatment — whether it’s the typhoid vaccine, the polio vaccine, or a plethora of other immuno-stimulating drugs — very dangerous. “ Often stimulating the immune system also stimulates HIV, causing vims overactivity, which is ultimately detrimental. I find a study automatically deficient if it doesn’t incorporate monitoring of HIV activity.” (Catapano’s patients — with their increased T-cells and apparent remissions — appear well, but only a few are re-tested for HIV infection and Catapano doesn’t release the results.) “ I don’t want to discourage people,” continues Love less, “ but what looks good, what sounds rational, may not work. I remain hopeful, but skeptical. I don’t think that persons with AIDS should be rushing off to their doctors to get typhoid injections. “ A few years ago, Isoprinosine was considered the ‘magic’ cure, persons with AIDS flocked to Mexico in order to get the drug. Now we’ve [OHSU] just completed a scientifically valid study which proves the drug is ineffective — another case of a rational- sounding treatment not working.” At this point, persons with AIDS need to decide for themselves; the apparent remission of patients treated with typhoid vaccine and also the lack of toxicity (unlike AZT) make the treat ment appealng. The saga of Isoprinosine and Loveless’s warning must make one stop and wonder, though. “ I was tired of having my patients die,” said one Los Angeles physician. “ This stuff works. That's what I care about .” •