cover image The Virus Within: A Coming Epidemic

The Virus Within: A Coming Epidemic

Nicholas Regush. Dutton Books, $24.95 (261pp) ISBN 978-0-525-94534-5

A virus called HHV-6 (a form of the human herpes virus) is at the heart of a controversy brewing in the scientific community; here Regush (The Breaking Point: Understanding Your Potential for Violence), a science and medical reporter for ABC News, presents an investigation into the subject. HHV-6 lies dormant in most people, but some scientists are uncovering evidence that it may play a role in serious illnesses such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis (MS). Most AIDS research in the last two decades has focused on HIV as the primary cause, but Regush presents work that appears to contradict this theory--work that he says has been discounted or marginalized by the scientific establishment--such as that of researcher Peter Duesberg of UC-Berkeley, who considers HIV to be a harmless passenger virus, and that of a team of Australian scientists who also attribute AIDS to causes other than HIV. Then Regush focuses on Dan Carrigan and Konnie Knox, scientists who found active HHV-6 present in patients who had died of AIDS. The two colleagues, operating in obscurity on a shoestring, have conducted further studies that seem to indicate that the reactivated virus is also present in MS patients. The author also details research that seems to imply a connection between the herpes viruses and chronic fatigue syndrome as well as some forms of mental illness. Regush stops short of drawing any conclusions about the role of HHV-6 in AIDS and MS, but he does make a strong case that further research should be supported. Regush, who displays a gift for taking complex medical material and making it accessible to the lay reader, has written a page-turning medical mystery. Agent, Denise Bukowski. (Mar.)