The Virus Within

by Nicholas Regush

If you were told there was a killer in your basement, you'd be legitimately concerned. Scientists have uncovered a virus living peacefully inside us that may strike out at us when our guard is down, but nobody seems to be listening. Potentially linked to such poorly understood diseases as multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and AIDS, this member of the herpes family (HHV-6) is thoroughly examined in science journalist Nicholas Regush's The Virus Within. Unfortunately, little is known at present, in part because of the personality-driven nature of research funding; struggling scientists must compete with big names like Robert Gallo for attention and dollars. Regush follows the careers of Donald Carrigan and Konnie Knox, medical virologists trying to learn more about HHV-6 while at the same time informing their unconcerned colleagues about its threat.

While the book is a bit too easy on the Peter Duesberg-led charge against the HIV hypothesis of AIDS, it makes the point well that the scientific community, spurred on by clueless funders, is too quick to crystallize around one way of thinking about disease. This may be more a important issue than the threat of HHV-6--even if we do expand our research focus to include this likely killer, we haven't reached the root of the problem. How long will it take these voices in the wilderness to find sympathetic ears, and how long will it take the next scientific prophets to make themselves heard? Perhaps, if enough of us read The Virus Within, we can heed their warnings while there's still time to act. --Rob Lightner

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Necol or Eli Dickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good book detailing the discovery and theories around HIV and AIDS research possibly being linked to HHV-6 (herpes virus). However it is a little out of date and I worry that someone reading it who doesn't understand that science has improved since then might take a more conspiracy theory approach to it.

[Andrew (M) · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a waste of time this book is. It is boring, scientifically questionable, and disjointed. Do yourself a favour and don't read “The Virus Within”.

Despite the alarming (alarmist?) title, this is one of the most dry books I have ever read. Paragraph after boring paragraph report research findings. Sometimes there is context given, but for much of the book it feels like you are reading endless, condensed and simplified scientific abstracts. As a scientist and a reader of good popular science books, I know that this can be done much much better. It is disappointing that a book on such a potentially interesting topic was written so poorly.

The only times when the author injects some humanity into the book are the rare occasions when he describes the lives of the researchers themselves. While these are a welcome break from the tedious details of the lab results, they seem to appear out of nowhere and lack context. Sometimes, in the middle of pages and pages of results, the reader suddenly encounters three or four pages about the personality conflicts among scientists (which are then never mentioned again). There are almost no case studies or descriptions of patients, and when a patient is described the author very quickly returns to the lab findings.

Not only is it as boring as watching paint dry, “The Virus Within” is also annoyingly biased against the medical establishment and mainstream science, making it a frustrating read for anyone involved in scientific research. “The Virus Within” is about a recently discovered herpes virus that some researchers believe is the cause, or at least a co-factor, in a number of diseases including AIDS, MS, and chronic fatigue syndrome. The author does not even make the pretense of considering both sides of the debate over the role of this virus; the champions of HHV-6 are brilliant, hardworking, down-to-earth researchers who have been unfairly shut out of the scientific debate, while mainstream scientists are mindless and unquestioning bureaucrats. I don't think that the book is necessarily wrong for daring to criticize the established consensus that HIV causes AIDS (although that is quite a stretch in my opinion). The problem is that the evidence as it is presented is circumstantial and flimsy, and the rhetorical devices used seem designed to sway readers emotionally. And anytime a scientist claims to be suppressed by the establishment, you have to at least wonder whether the research borders on the pseudoscientific. Furthermore, the subtitle claiming that this is “A Coming Epidemic” is utterly without substance or even mention in the book itself.

If HHV-6 is a topic that interests you, go to PubMed.com and run a search. I guarantee that you'll find as much information, and much more exciting reading, than you'll get from “The Virus Within”.

[J.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll admit I had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up. The title has the word "virus" in it, and that's good enough for me.

What I found was a well-written, well-documented book on a retrovirus that lives in all of us, which is dubbed HHV-6 and could be responsible for cellular damage in a wide variety of diseases because it lies dormant in our bodies until our immune system is compromised.

While this is fascinating, particularly how HHV-6 has been observed in conjunction with multiple sclerosis and problems arising in patients receiving transplants, the most interesting part of the book is the detailed explanation it gives about medical schisms over HIV as the cause of AIDS. Growing up as I did in a time when AIDS literally began to explode on the scene, I always assumed the company line about the disease being caused by HIV was gospel truth. This book helps cast some doubts on that prognosis, indicating the prevalence of HHV-6 in AIDS patients that might explain how their symptoms progress so rapidly.

This isn't a book for the faint of heart ~ while written in layman's terms, the scientific concepts and terminology presented may scare off or bore the average reader. But if you're into medical studies like I am, you'll enjoy this.

[Chris Demer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the book was fairly well written, I was not that impressed with the content and conclusions. I tend not to trust science writers who seem to have an agenda. And Regush seems to have an agenda. Of course the book is not new and he can't be faulted for lack of up to date information in virology, a constantly growing field. However, he seems to give undue credit to researchers such as Duesberg and Papadopulos (Australian) as well as a New York physician (Sonnabend) who believed the HIV virus was (is?) not responsible directly for AIDS. Their research supposedly identifies frail immune systems due to stresses and frequent STD exposure in a lifestyle that caused the disease to be activated. (This does not explain why AIDS has increased so swiftly among heterosexuals, including men and especially women who do not routinely engage in risky behavior.) He also denigrates to some extent the research establishment, particularly Robert Gallo. Not fair, even though Gallo apparently has a giant ego and does not brook dissent readily.

The author does describe some inroads in virus research which may implicate Human Herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) in some "autoimmune" diseases as well as Chronic Fatique Syndrome. (Research by Knox and Carrigan in particular.)

[Alma · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the subject matter was interesting, all I know about HHV-6, the connection between HIV and AIDS, endogenous viruses, and chronic illness is that I want to learn about it and wish this book were better so I could have done so. The author's writing is scattered, unclear, and often in random tenses without any overarching theme, focus, or line of reasoning. In the introduction, he thanks the people who asked him to write this book; clearly no one asked him if they could edit it.

[V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a fast read, but it didn't provide enough information about the HHV-6 virus. I felt that it was more about the reseachers than about the virus. Rather disappointing.