AAP FACTCHECK – Falsehoods about supposed links between the smallpox vaccine and HIV/AIDS have re-emerged on social media in recent weeks.
Many of the claims attempt to draw parallels with the mpox vaccine, which health authorities are attempting to distribute across Africa to tackle the spread of the virus.
Among the claims are that “smallpox trials” in Africa led to the creation of AIDS, that the vaccines administered in Africa in the 1960s were contaminated with AIDS, and that the vaccine was responsible for the creation of HIV.
The claims are false.
One Instagram post claims AIDS “only started” after smallpox vaccination trials in Africa.
The post contains several errors.
There were never trials of the smallpox vaccine in Africa and the vaccine was well established when it was used as part of a smallpox eradication campaign across the continent in the 1960s.
Experts told AAP FactCheck the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which can lead to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), first spread from chimpanzees to humans sometime before 1920 in Cameroon.
Paul Sharp, a professor of genetics at the University of Edinburgh, said the vast majority of HIV cases are caused by the HIV-1 group M virus.
“This virus originated in chimpanzees in west central Africa, and was transmitted to humans probably a little over 100 years ago,” he said.
“It seems likely the original transmission occurred in a very rural area … the wider epidemic probably got going after the virus reached a heavily populated area, probably Kinshasa [previously Leopoldville, in the Democratic Republic of Congo].”
The first official case of AIDS was recorded in 1981 in Los Angeles, thousands of kilometres from Africa.
There was no outbreak within Africa around the time the smallpox vaccine was delivered.
Scientists have identified possible cases of AIDS before the epidemic began in the 1980s that retrospectively met the definition and symptoms of the disease.
Research also suggests AIDS afflicted chimpanzees prior to the emergence of HIV, the precursor of which was Simian Immunodeficiency Virus.
Prof Sharp said the re-use of dirty needles in various contexts, including vaccination campaigns, can be an effective means of spreading the virus.
“But I am not aware of any evidence that supports the role of any particular vaccine trials in spreading HIV/AIDS,” he said.
David Tscharke, a professor of immunology and viruses at Australian National University, said there were never any smallpox vaccine “trials” in African countries.
“The practice of smallpox vaccination goes back to the early 1800s in Europe, when formal trials weren’t done for any type of medicine.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) did launch a global smallpox vaccination campaign in 1959, after the virus had already been eliminated from North America, Europe and Australia.
The virus was eradicated from the South American continent in 1971, from Asia in 1975 and from Africa in 1977.
Prof Tscharke said the claim may be based on a newspaper article from the late 1980s that suggested the push for smallpox eradication through vaccines was linked with the emergence of HIV.
That suggestion, he said, “has no real substance”.
Another claim circulating is that the smallpox vaccine led to the creation of HIV. This is also false.
“We have had definitive genetic evidence that the origin of HIV was spillovers (more than one) of a primate virus into humans for over a decade,” Prof Tscharke said.
“This same evidence allows the dating of the emergence of HIV in the early 20th century or even earlier.
“So firstly, the origin of HIV is not in dispute and, secondly, it emerged too early for any of the vaccine-link myths to be true.”
Additionally, a 2018 study of HIV-positive Senegalese people who had received the smallpox vaccine did not find “any association between a previous smallpox vaccination and HIV disease progression”.
Other social media posts have suggested that smallpox vaccines administered in Africa by the WHO were “tainted” or “contaminated” with AIDS.
Such scenarios are impossible – AIDS is an acquired disease that develops when HIV infection becomes severe enough to damage the immune system, but it cannot be transmitted through vaccines or by other people
The Verdict
False – The claims are inaccurate.
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