What Ebola, HIV, and Zika Have in Common - 2016

            What do the Ebola, HIV, and Zika viruses have in common with all thirty trillion cells in the human body? Selenium. Most viruses, at least all enveloped viruses contain and require selenium for their formation. The HIV Env envelope gene encodes a selenium protein. Thus, HIV and other enveloped viruses cannot be produced without selenium molecules. Where do viruses obtain their selenium? They acquire it by “stealing” it from human cells. As a result, they make cells sick and that makes people sick.

            Selenium molecules constitute the active site of glutathione peroxidase, GPx, the universal antioxidant that helps keep every cell in the body clean, healthy and detoxified. That makes selenium nature’s strongest antioxidant. That also makes it an anti-inflammatory. While selenium is in every human and animal cell, also playing a structural role; this essential trace element is concentrated in the cells and organs of the immune system. All aspects of complex immune functions require it. When total selenium levels in the body fall below 70% of normal, a person dies.    

            Since selenium is also found in the cells of almost all plants, practically every food we eat contains this trace element. However, it exists in such infinitely small amounts, when it is depleted by viral infection it is impossible to adequately replace selenium stores in the body through diet alone. That is unless you eat Brazil nuts daily. But like some seafood, these nuts also contain heavy metals. The best sources of dietary selenium are meats, especially organ meats, seafood and grains. Vegetables and especially fruits are generally poor sources of selenium. Corn-based as opposed to wheat-based diets are generally low in selenium. Dietary intake of selenium varies greatly worldwide depending on the amount of selenium in the soil and foods eaten. Sweden amends selenium into agricultural soil using fertilizers in order to reduce cancer rates and improve health. China adds selenium to salt in highly selenium deficient regions. Livestock feed producers add selenium to their products because selenium helps animals grow and helps keep herds and flocks healthy. Selenium enriched feed helps prevent both viral and bacterial diseases from spreading among crowded animal populations and helps prevent economic loss to farmers. Viral epidemics, especially those of emerging viruses, would be much less catastrophic if humans were so lucky to receive the same consideration.    

            Viruses are selenium thieves. They steal it from the cells they infect and from the organs and glands of the immune system, like the liver, where selenium is concentrated. When the influenza virus infects lung tissue, within three days selenium levels in cells lining the lungs fall by forty per cent making those cells, the lungs and people sick. HIV is a lentivirus – a “slow” virus. When HIV viral load increases, it gradually depletes the immune system of selenium resulting in acquired immune deficiency of selenium – AIDS. Untreated, HIV causes selenium levels in the body to fall to fatal lows – about 70% of normal – after about ten years. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the superfast replicating Ebola filovirus genetically encodes approximately twenty-five seleno-proteins. Ebola drains selenium to fatal levels in as little as ten days.

            The benefits of high levels of bodily selenium in preventing viral infection, reducing virulence and reducing the incidence of birth defects due to viral damage to DNA are well documented. The intelligent use of selenium supplements is especially important in pregnant women during their first and second trimester when fetal development is most susceptible to viral disturbance. Just the opposite of the mistaken idea that selenium supplements might feed a virus, selenium possess multiple anti-viral mechanisms working as a natural reverse transcriptase inhibitor (RTI), a nuclear-factor kappa-binding inhibitor (Nf-kBI) and as both an integrase and a Tat inhibitor. Supplementing selenium reduces viral replication, boosts immune function, “counteracts the development of virulence and inhibits HIV progression to AIDS.” Lancet (2000; 356:233-41) Supplementing selenium appears to be the fastest way to increase CD4 count. It is also useful in treating auto-immune disease. Basic to life and health, selenium is not contraindicated to any other medication.

            The interrelationship between selenium and HIV is well documented scientifically with over fifty medical journal articles reporting that selenium provides benefits against HIV disease. It is the only vitamin or mineral that alone has a significant impact against HIV. The best, most knowledgeable HIV clinicians recommend selenium supplements as adjunct therapy for their patients. At the 2006 Toronto AIDS Conference, Harvard University researchers who worked in cooperation with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research reported their clinical trial results. Their study compared 170 advanced AIDS patients with an average of 50 CD4 count who were given a three-drug HAART therapy, to a matched set of 170 given the same HAART therapy plus one tablet of 200mcg selenium daily. After fifteen months, the group with added selenium more than doubled the increase in CD4 count compared to those on HAART alone. The selenium group saw triple the increase in hemoglobin compared to the HAART only group. Unfortunately, 200mcg constituted a suboptimal dose. The correct dose of selenium for AIDS patients with less than 100 CD4 is 600mcg daily. Numerous journal articles report the effectiveness of selenium in helping treat opportunistic infections including tuberculosis, pneumonia, Kaposi sarcoma (KS), candidiasis, skin problems, nerve damage, myopathy, cardiomyopathy, hypertension, depression, wasting and co-infection with hepatitis.           

            Over twenty scientific papers reference the fact that higher selenium levels slow down the progression of HIV to AIDS. The latest study published in the journal AIDS in August 2015 showed that one 200mcg tablet of sodium selenite slowed the progression of HIV to AIDS by 43.8%. This was conducted by Canadian researchers working with the Rwandan Ministry of Health and involved three hundred HIV positive patients who were not yet on ARV treatment. A safe dosage of 300-400mcg per day would have improved results.

            Knowing that selenium had been shown to be effective against hemorrhagic fever viruses including Marburg virus in Angola and Hanta virus in China, when the Ebola epidemic struck in 2014 I contacted the governments concerned. The Ministry of Health of Liberia requested me to bring selenium. Less than twenty-four hours after my arrival in Monrovia the Ministry had arranged a small, rapid, informal clinical trial against Ebola and had selenium in the patients. Time magazine’s Man of the Year, Dr. Jerry Brown supplemented forty-two Ebola patients with 1.2mg of sodium-selenite at ELWA-II Ebola treatment unit (ETU). After two weeks the survival rate increased from the previous range of 40-45% based on using the WHO/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) standard Ebola treatment protocol alone. After adding 1.2mg selenium daily to that standard protocol therapy, survival rates rose to 68%. That constituted an approximate 55% improvement in survival. However, this was a suboptimal dose. According to medical journal articles the optimal dose of selenium in hemorrhagic fever disease is 2mg per day.

            Today Zika is the latest selenium thief to confront mankind. Zika steals selenium from the brain and nervous system. The current Zika epidemic could worsen and spread worldwide long before an effective pharmaceutical drug is developed to treat it. It took fifteen years to develop truly effective HIV medications - protease inhibitors. After almost ten years of research no drug has come online to directly treat Ebola. However, unknown or unacknowledged by “experts”, a partially effective treatment for Zika already exists – selenium. Suggested dose – 200mcg daily to help prevent infection or prevent birth defects following the active stage of infection, or 400-600mcg during a patient’s initial active phase of illness.

            It is well established that viral infection during pregnancy can cause both birth defects and life-long chronic diseases, especially during the first trimester. Zika causes microcephaly only during the first and second trimester. Higher bodily levels of selenium reduce birth defects because they reduce genetic mutations, a common cause of birth defects. Selenium does this by helping prevent viral infections from becoming virulent and damaging DNA. Selenium should also help prevent Zika caused Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS).

            Tuberculosis, especially drug-resistant TB is a resurgent challenge to medical systems worldwide. According to an article in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (2002:29:169-173) “lower levels of selenium significantly increased the relative risk of developing mycobacterial disease [by 1,300%]” and “selenium therapy may contribute to the successful elimination and/or decreased dissemination of mycobacterial disease in HIV-1...” Adding selenium supplements to standard TB combination therapy quickly restores stamina and improves health. Due to such a rapid rebound in health, TB patients must be cautioned against stopping their six-month treatment protocol. Selenium should help against drug resistant tuberculosis.

            Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies, some doctors and even governments have strongly opposed the use of selenium against HIV and Ebola. In one African country 500,000 people died prior to the introduction of free ARVs as the government cut the people off from selenium supplies and lied to them, falsely claiming there was no evidence selenium could help against HIV. Ebola patients also died as doctors with MSF refused the idea that selenium could offer any benefit to their patients. They would not even try it.

            The United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes the right of all peoples to have knowledge about and access to medicines that can make or keep them healthy. This right should not be infringed by any company, industry, doctor, government, NGO or international organization.  

               - Howard S. Armistead , IAS                                                 7 July 2016, revised 1 July 2018     

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