1963
The mass
vaccination campaigns of the 1950s and '60s may be causing hundreds of
deaths a year because of a cancer-causing virus that contaminated the
first polio vaccine, according to scientists. Known as SV40, the virus
came from dead monkeys whose kidney cells were used to culture the first
Salk vaccines. Doctors estimate that the virus was injected into tens of
millions during the vaccination campaigns, including several million in
Canada, before being detected and screened out in 1963. Those born
between 1941 and 1961 are thought to be most at risk of having been
infected. SV-40 Cancer Virus
