Killer cancer

Scan page 11

The herpes viruses include herpes simplex (which causes cold sores and genital herpes), herpes zoster (measles, shingles and encephalitis), Epstein-Barr virus (glandular fever and Burkitt's lymphoma), and cytomegalovirus (a type of glandular fever, congenital deformities - and possibly KS).

So what is the "opportunity" some gay men seem to be "offering" to these diseases? The answer is AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. 95% of its victims are men and 98% of them live in the US. In people with AIDS, disease organisms (bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi or cancer cells) can get established without the immune defences killing them.

How does the immune system work, then, and what is AIDS?

Blood cells

When foreign subst inces germs) get inte the body, white blood cells respond by making antibodies, which help destroy the intruders. Two types of white blood. cells, called Band I-lymphocytes, are involved in this.

The B-cells make the antibodies, while the T-cells control and regulate the Bcells.

There are two types of Tcells - "helpers" , which encourage the B-cells to make • antibodies; and "killers" which stop B-cells making antibodies (preferably after the germs have been dealt with).

Usually, there are, more helpers than killers. But in AIDS victims, there are more killers than helpers - with disastrous consequences. Any disease organisms which get into the body can have a field day!

No one cause has been found for AIDS though the following : factors may be involved.

1. Use of drugs.

American "poppers" drugs Lots of sniff such as amyl, butyl and iso-butyl nitrites, which speed up the heart and enhance feelings of pleasure. Poppers seem to cause an imbalance in the Tcells and have been linked with KS.

Hydrocortisone ointments are also used to treat piles and various skin complaints - and one side-effect can he to suppress the immune system.

2. Frequent use of syringes (i.e. to inject drugs). This seems a possible cause of AIDS in heterosexuals as well. A virus that causes hepatitis is already known to spread in this way.

3. Anal intercourse. Not restricted to gays, though probably less common in hetercscxuals with the advent of reliable contraception. Viruses may actually find it easier to get into the body (through sore skin or haemorrhoids) than by vaginal intercourse. And repeated infections with viruses can wear down the immune defences.

4. Many partners. victims seem to have more sexual partners than nonvictims and the distribution of cases (50% in New York, 25% in California and 7% in Miami) suggests that something is being transferred between partners:

Research into AIDS may help answer many questions about viruses, the immune system and cancers, as well as possibly removing source of fear and suffering from gay men. And there is now a fair amount of research in the US going on, though I wonder whether more would have been done if the victims had been middle class, middle aged heterosexuals like sutterers from "Legionnaire's disease"

In Britain, little publiclyfunded research is going on and little pressure seems to have been mounted to encourage more, though the London gay community has launched a memorial fund (the Terry Higgins Trust) to pay for more research. politicians, civil servants, military personnel, and, no doubt, a few captains of industry, will race for their secret bunkers in the Chilterns, Salisbury and elsewhere.

Britain will be divided into 12 administrative regions, run by ministers. and sub-regions run by the Chief Executives of the county councils.

Parallel with the administrative regions will be military commands. They will undertake the 'control of selfish and disgruntled minorities' , 'subjection and elimination of hostile elements', 'suppurt and protection of special courts. and guards on internment arcas'.

Operation Square Leg. the civil defence exercise held in 1980, set aside over 6,000 troops to move against "suhversive' elements.

Civil defence is about the defence of 'order', of the preservation and domination of the bourgeois side machine before, during. and after a nuclear war. If we are sorious about the survival of humanity, then that state machine must be broken: and the order it both protects and is part of must be overthrown.

The slogan "socialism or barbarism' has never been more relevant than it is today.