The issue of mercury toxicity resulting from the use of childhood vaccines has been given center stage billing in our Nation's quest to explain the increasing incidence of autism. What is still being excluded is a forthright discussion of autism as an infectious process. Reasons stem from an incomplete understanding of virus pathology and the probable reluctance of Government to face the many legal, political and Public Health implications of a positive finding.

Arguments against an infectious cause of autism include “it is obviously genetic,” as if genetics precluded an additive infectious component. “You can't catch autism from an autistic child.” True, but possibly because autism requires changes to occur during prenatal development. It is known, for example, that abnormalities are detectable in cord blood of babies who subsequently become autistic. This finding alone argues against mercury containing vaccines being the primary cause of autism.

Inflammation is not typically seen in the brains of autistic children, as if this is an essential hallmark of an infectious process. Herein enters the concept of stealth-adapted viruses. Effective immune recognition of even large complex viruses is targeted against only a few viral components. Simple deletion/mutation of these critical target antigens can render a virus essentially invisible to the cellular immune system.

Examples of stealth-adapted viruses have been described in peer-reviewed publications. Some of these viruses were unequivocally derived from African green monkey simian cytomegalovirus (SCMV). Cytomegalovirus infected African green monkeys were routinely used to manufacture live polio vaccines. Even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has shown SCMV DNA in licensed polio vaccines. FDA officials report that they cannot culture SCMV from these contaminated vaccines but are unwilling to release the vaccine lots for independent testing. There is now evidence that the polio vaccines tested in Africa were also contaminated with monkey-derived CMV. Since CMV can promote the growth of the HIV, the question arises whether polio vaccine studies in Africa inadvertently led to the AIDS epidemic.

I have repeatedly seen cell damaging effects attributed to stealth-adapted viruses in cultures of blood samples from children with autism and related illnesses. No one has proven otherwise. Patient-derived stealth-adapted viruses have been injected into animals with devastating clinical effects in the absence of any inflammation. The brain biopsy from a child with a severe neurological illness showed the same striking cellular damage as that seen in viral cultures. An autistic or severely learning disabled child should be considered as being stealth virus infected unless a negative culture shows otherwise.

What do we lose by not knowing if a virus infection is contributing to a child's illness. First and foremost is the opportunity to direct therapy at suppressing viral activity and enhancing the child's capacity to counteract the metabolic damage caused by the virus. Mitochondria that normally provide metabolic cellular energy can be severely damaged as a consequent of stealth virus infection. In response, infected cells acquire alternative cellular energy pigments (ACE-pigments). Mitochondria support, and natural products with ACE-pigment-like activity are obvious choices for evaluative therapy. SCMV has multiple copies of chemokine responsive genes suggesting the use for chemokine inhibitors in patients in whom an SCMV-derived stealth virus can be identified. Virus suppressive activity can be assessed by perfo rming serial viral cultures.

Is there a risk of transmission of illness within families, to school teachers and to classmates? Probably yes. On whose conscience rests the occurrence of brain damage in a teacher dealing with such children? Might home schooling be more appropriate until the parameters of virus transmission are better elucidated? Precautions can be taken that may protect infections crisscrossing among family members. An organic lifestyle is justified since various household chemicals are more likely to cause toxicity in those with pre-existing brain damage. A stealth virus infection may even be considered as a contraindication for routine childhood vaccination. But if our Public Health agencies do not begin to test for these viruses, or are unwilling to even discuss the possibility of their existence, the epidemic of autism will likely continue to expand. Surely within the nearly $7,000,000,000 dollars spent annually by the Centers for Disease Control, a few thousand dollars could be spent learning about stealth-adapted viruses. Specifically, authorities could begin by culturing the SCMV-derived stealth virus that has been maintained since 1992 at the American Type Culture Collection repository. The public can help by using the media, including internet, to bring this important issue to the attention of their political representatives.