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AIIXS FOCUS
AIDS: Words From The Front
Part HI of a Ill-part series
Parts I and II of AIDS: Words From
The Front introduced medical technologist
Salvatore Catapano and his use of the
typhoid vaccine to combat AIDS, which he
believes is actually "extraordinarily
entrenched in late-staging syphilis."
Granted a U.S. patent for his discovery
that "a complete immunization and
remission of a person afflicted with AIDS
may be achieved by the administration with
typhoid vaccine," Catapano has begun the
slow process of convincing the medical
establishment of the validity of his research.
Although use of the typhoid vaccine has
produced amazing results, including
complete HIV remission in several cases,
the increased use of the protocol is prima
rily due to the insistence of people with
AIDS seeking new and safer treatments.
In this, the third and final installment of
AIDS: Words From The Front, writer
Katie Leishman wraps up Catapano's story
with a look at the scientist himself, and the
possible future implications of the AIDS as
Syphilis theory.
Catapano himself may not make the most
effective case for his own discoveries. At 72,
he has no experience as a public speaker; in
front of an audience he is plain spoken, direct,
emotional and sometimes defensive. He is
Fiercely devoted to the patients he treats. They
know they can call him any time, day or night,
and hear the familiar, "How 'ya doin, buddy?"
On the other hand if he discovers a patient has
become reinfected with syphilis or is secretly
taking another treatment, he lets a patient have
it-at the top of his lungs. Some patients love
Catapano's style. Others are put off by it and
never come back.
Dr. Klaus-Uwe Dierig-a West German
physician who became convinced that syphilis
was the key to AIDS in 1984, after seeing
dramatic remission of symptoms in AIDS
patients whom he treated with high doses of
penicillin-recently met with Catapano in New
York. After returning to Germany and
pursuing clinical and literary research, Dierig
concluded that penicillin therapy should
indeed be preceded by, and then alternated
with, typhoid vaccine. He told Catapano that
his findings with typhoid vaccine represented
a major discovery. (Catapano and Dierig will
be appearing at a seminar on AIDS and
syphilis in New York City in November,
sponsored by H.E.A.L., the Health, Education
AIDS Liaison.)
Although Catapano has not published any
formal study of his work, several of the
physicians using his vaccine are preparing to
pool their patient data and publish their
Original Art by Shelton Bryant
findings in collaboration with the inventor.
Many skeptical physicians insist they want to
wait until they see a publication. Patients,
however, may not be that particular. Michael
Smith, a stockbroker in San Francisco who
has AIDS and has thrived on the typhoid
protocol, observes, "Doctors are bound to say,
Well, it's very nice that you all have stories
about feeling better on typhoid, but where's
the double blind study?' Well, those studies
can take several years to materialize.
Meanwhile, a patient has been told he has two
years to live, and his only option is AZT,
which may kill him sooner. Then you hear
about patients getting better on something that
is non-toxic, is cheaper, and might make you
better. You're not waiting for any study."
Indeed, in most cases it is the insistence of
a patient or group of patients which leads a
physician to start using the Catapano typhoid
protocol. After eight years, the medical
establishment has pitifully little to offer AIDS
patients and, in a situation unprecedented in
medical history, patients are increasingly
dictating the direction of clinical treatment of
this disease. Credentials and publications
don't carry the weight they customarily do.
All that patients want to know, and mostly
from one another, is "What's working?"
Recently Catapano received an unusual
call, from a physician in California whose
five-year-old daughter had been in a car crash
and become HIV-positive following multiple
transfusions. The child had started AZT
treatment and was developing painful side
effects. The doctor and his wife were calling
Catapano in desperation. The child began the
protocol the next day.
Catapano's patent covers not only the treat
ment of AIDS, but other disorders he believes
to be immune-related, such as lupus, Epstein-
Barr virus (chronic fatigue syndrome), herpes,
and rheumatoid arthritis. Indeed, physicians
using the protocol report wondrous resolution
of symptoms unrelated to AIDS. Dr. Cima, of
Rockville Center, New York, observes that
herpes has not recurred in patients undergoing
typhoid vaccine therapy. Dr. Mehl of San
Francisco has treated three Epstein-Barr
patients. "They were my three toughest
chronic fatigue cases; two of the patients had
been ill for 10 years," he says. "The improve
ment within six weeks was extraordinary."
Dr. Terry Pulse of Dallas says that his most
astonishing case involved an HIV-negative
patient with a grapefruit-sized malignant
tumor on his neck. "The man had received
every treatment and was told to go home and
die," says Pulse. "Within four and a half
months of typhoid vaccine therapy, the tumor
was completely gone. The man is well."
Where AIDS is concerned, the typhoid
vaccine appears to hold a golden promise.
There are qualifications. Catapano cautions
that "to finish the treatment doesn't mean that
someone will never be sick again, never have
pneumonia or an infectioa But, with their
immune system restored, they will be able to
handle it as they should" One infection they
must not get again, however, is syphilis; if
someone contracts the disease over and over
again, it will eventually kill them, no matter
what treatment is given.
The ever-growing body of evidence
relating syphilis and AIDS remains
controversial. It is intriguing, however, that so
many AIDS patients treated on the assumption
that syphilis is their primary problem are well,
while most of those who've received what is
essentially anti-viral treatment have died
Clearly the vaccine is a fascinating wild card,
not only in the current epidemic but in the
future of medicine. Salvatore Catapano's
contribution, already a noteworthy one, may
prove to be historic.
- Katie Leishman
This article originally appeared in the
November, 1988 issue o/Spin magazine. The
article was accompanied by a condom with
explicit instructions on safer sex usage which
prompted a nationwide controversy (See
Southern Voice, Vol. 1, #21).
"AIDS-Words from the Front" is
reprinted courtesy of Spin Magazine.
Deborah
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