Hello, I’m Paul Franks and I’ve written a conspiracy-thriller called ‘A Dive Into Darkness’, based upon my four years researching HIV/AIDS. In this original podcast series, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the story behind the story, the four-year research and writing process from inspiration to publication, and all points in between.

In the previous episodes I outlined some of the reasons why I believe CMV played an important part of the AIDS narrative. In Episode Nineteen I examine the consequences of an event which occurred just as word was beginning to spread in Atlanta about a mysterious epidemic amongst gay males in California and New York. On May 13th, 1981, Pope John Paul II was badly injured by gunshots during an attempted assassination in St Peter’s Square. On June 30th, the New York Times reported the following:

‘THE viral illness that the Vatican says has complicated the recovery of Pope John Paul II from an assassination attempt is one of the most common and baffling of human infections. The Pontiff's doctors presume the infection was introduced into the Pope's body with one of the 10 blood transfusions he received during and immediately after emergency surgery on May 13. It is an infection for which no specific therapy exists, and recovery is up to the healing powers of nature.The illness is called cytomegalovirus infection, or CMV, and it infects the overwhelming majority of people at one time or another. Yet a medical mystery is why the virus infects so many people but makes so few sick. This characteristic distinguishes CMV from other common viral diseases, such as measles, which causes symptoms in almost every person it infects. Epidemiological studies have shown that at least 1 percent of newborns enter the world with an active cytomegalovirus infection. The incidence rises thereafter, with a peak occurring between the ages of 15 and 30. Although the incidence of CMV varies widely throughout the world, cytomegalovirus has left its ''fingerprints'' in the blood of about 80 percent of the people 40 years or older in most populations.

The symptoms and damage produced by CMV vary widely and depend on the age at which an individual is infected. Pediatricians commonly detect the virus in the urine of apparently healthy babies. However, CMV infections can cause abortion, stillbirth or death in the early days after birth from bleeding, anemia, hepatitis or brain damage. The infection can also damage the body in more subtle ways. CMV is considered an important cause of mental retardation. It can also lead to hearing and visual loss, as well as other central nervous system and developmental abnormalities that impair learning ability. Damage caused by the virus may not be detected until a child is several years old. Though most adults, as well as most infants, may become infected but escape symptoms, many infected individuals develop fever, fatigue, liver and spleen enlargement and lung inflammation. The Pope had all these symptoms, according to one of his doctors. The doctor also said that the medical team was uncertain whether the lung infection was caused by CMV because the type of inflammation seen on his chest X-rays differed from the usual pattern of a CMV pulmonary infection.

The virus is often diagnosed in patients whose immunological system has been compromised either from chronic diseases or from drugs aimed at helping to prevent rejection of transplanted kidneys and other organs. Some such patients die from CMV. The virus probably has caused infections for centuries, but the disease was recognized only in recent decades. In the late 19th century, doctors began to notice peculiar cells in the urine and organs of some children. Observed through an ordinary microscope, the cells appeared enlarged and contained dense particles called inclusion bodies. For a long time, the cell damage was attributed to a parasite. It was only in 1956, with the aid of new virological techniques, that scientists discovered that a virus, not a parasite, produced the cell changes and was responsible for the wide variety of symptoms and damage. Accordingly, it was named cytomegalovirus, from the Greek words cyto, for cell, and megalo, for large. CMV belongs to the herpes family of viruses, and when examined through an electron microsocope, it cannot be distinguished from other members of the family, such as those that cause herpes infections, chickenpox and shingles. The distinction is made by other laboratory tests.Diagnosing the virus can be difficult because individuals who have had a ''silent'' CMV infection can pass the virus in the urine for years. Since isolation of the virus alone does not conclusively link a patient's current medical problem to CMV, the diagnosis reflects a judgmental decision based on a combination of blood, urine and other tests, as well as an evaluation of the patient's clinical history.

Doctors have yet to fully determine how the infection spreads. The virus can pass from a mother's blood through the placenta to a fetus, and it occurs frequently in the cervix portion of the womb and breast milk. Still, doctors are uncertain when and how some fetuses and newborns acquire the infection. Among adults, close contact is apparently needed to spread the infection. Sometimes, CMV is spread by blood transfusions, producing an illness that resembles infectious mononucleosis. The virus can begin two to four weeks after transfusion and last a month or more. There are no tests to screen blood contaminated with CMV. The risk of acquiring CMV from blood transfusions varies geographically and is considered very low in the United States. Some American experts said privately that they were surprised by the diagnosis of CMV in the Pope because of the small probability that a healthy 61-year-old man had never had a CMV infection in the past. However, CMV was isolated from the Pope's urine, and increasing amounts of protective antibodies were detected in samples of his blood taken over several weeks, according to one of the Pontiff's doctors.’

Thank you for listening to Episode Nineteen of ‘A Dive Into Darkness’. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please tell your friends about it. In Episode Twenty of ‘A Dive Into Darkness’, I will return to the book, ‘The Stealth Virus’, and tell you about what I believe to be a perfect description of how CMV acts in AIDS patients. Till the next time, goodbye and happy reading.

‘A Dive Into Darkness’ is available both as an ebook and paperback, with Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-dive-into-darkness-paul-franks/1145527746?ean=9781917129855

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dive-Into-Darkness-Paul-Franks-ebook/dp/B0D32DP97S

Pope John Paul II shot in St Peter's Square (13 May 1981)

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/25/world/tests-show-pope-now-has-virus-lung-gets-better.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/30/science/the-doctor-world.html

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