Heimlich & UCLA Researchers Investigated: infecting Chinese AIDS Patients with Malaria

The Cincinnati Enquirer ^ | 16 Feb 03 | Robert Anglen

[expatpat]

You might get some initial indications that way (and perhaps that has already been done, and gave some encouragement to the idea), but to get reliable results you'd have to do controlled experiments, as you must do for any cure.

[wonders]

Interesting article, xzins, thanks for posting it.

Did I miss something - as in no stats given on deaths resulting from this 'treatment' method. I find it hard to believe there was 100% survival rate among those under the experiment.

I missed them, too. But not all forms of malaria are necessarily deadly. My guess is they're using the P. vivax form (which is rarely fatal) and eventually curing the patient with cholorquine after x number of febrile episodes.

Wish I'd had vivax instead drug-resistant falciparum. And wish I'd had artesunate at the time -- that stuff rocks!

[Verginius Rufus]

Recently Jay Leno asked three "Jaywalking" contestants to name the doctor who developed the Heimlich maneuver. None of them had the slightest idea.

[wonders]

Wow -- look what I found: Impact of vivax malaria on the immune system of HIV-positive subjectsCenter for AIDS Control and Research, Municipal Health and Anti-Epidemic Station of Guangzhou, Guangzhou, P. R. China (XP Chen MD, PhD, BQ Xiao PhD, WJ Shi PhD, HF Xu MD, K Gao BS, JL Rao MD, ZB Zhang MD)

A beneficial interaction of malaria and HIV co-infection has been reported in a hospital-based study and in a well-controlled cohort study in Africa. In our previous studies there was an increase in total trend of CD4 cell counts in HIV-positive subjects during two years follow up to malariotherapy (therapeutic vivax malaria).

[Cicero]

I don't think we know enough about this to judge. I thought malaria was basically incurable. That is, it can be treated but it then recurs. I may be wrong about that, because what I know about malaria is way out of date.

As for experimenting on humans, it is legitimate if they are properly informed, if they are seriously ill, and if there is at least a reasonable chance that it may benefit them directly as well as others in the future. It could be that he is doing it in China because the U.S. authorities have blocked the research here; or it could be that the Chinese are using political prisoners or others without their consent, which they have been known to do.

On balance, I'm inclined to believe there may be something in this. The AIDS establishment is extremely untrustworthy and politicized and might easily oppose legitimate research for some bizarre reason of their own. Not to speak of drug company profits for AIDS drugs.

[Kenny Bunk]

Dr. Lurie says. "Many or most of them have not worked. Some are incredibly grandiose."

Which is to say that some of them have worked. This is a replay of a 19th Century idea which sought to cure syphilis patients by infecting them with malaria. It is simply too weird for Dr. Lurie-type scientists to handle.

Apparently, it apparently occasionally worked. The AIDS virus is very small, requiring careful electron microscopy of the highest order to observe. Malaria, Syphilis, and Lyme Disease are all three caused by very large (In microscopic terms) unicellular protozoa, rather than bacteria or viruses. Malaria causes extremely high fevers which kill or weaken the other protozoa. It somehow might do the same with AIDS. In the old days, the subsequent Malaria could be controlled with quinine> Today much more advanced drugs are available.

Why this avenue of research should be forbidden is a mystery to me, given that the therapy has shown some promise in the past. No one knows exactly why, which is exactly why it should be of scientific interest.

[expatpat]

That's the feeling I had, tho' you clearly know a lot more about it than I do.

[George W. Bush]

Interesting reading. First you think, "Just a quack scheme." Then you think and wonder about the results. Still, the notion of curing a major disease by inflicting another more treatable disease is kind of weird until you reflect that innoculation works by giving you a weaker form of the illness so you can build the necessary antibodies.

Of course, the big money in the current AIDS industry insures they'll guard their revenues closely.

[xzins]

Part of what fascinates me in this is the denial by UCLA that they're involved.

Both Dr. Fahey and Dr. Aziz deny involvement in Dr. Heimlich's malaria studies, and UCLA officials say they have asked Dr. Heimlich "to omit UCLA from all references relating to malaria studies or other Heimlich Institute research. Any claims of an affiliation with UCLA are inaccurate." But documents obtained by the Enquirer show the doctors have been active in the malaria experiments since 1996.

The denial is important to them. Is it reputation they're afraid of....simply that?

[NetValue]

"Controversial it does seem to be. But does it work? If it does, the establishment is being obstructive."

The pharmaceutical companies are the biggest obstacle to this research. My pharmacist cousin says he believes it is the best chance for a technique to cure AIDS. We have no cure at this time.

[LadyDoc]

high fever from malaria is an old cure for syphyllis, especially syphyllis of the brain.

Sounds like a dumb experiment, since HIV is common in countries with malaria, and population studies would show if it controlled it.

[wonders]

Oh no, malaria is quite curable. I'm cured! It can recur periodically (especially the vivax type) if untreated or incorrectly treated, or is a drug-resistant strain.

I found the actual study (link is in my #24) and under "methodology" the researchers state the participants signed informed consent.

I don't think Heimlich or any of the researchers claim "malariatherapy" cures HIV/AIDS, but it has an interesting effect on the immune system of HIV+ patients. Apparently, it is most effective for AIDS patients whose CD4 levels are within a certain range. From the study:

We here propose a hypothesis that malaria parasite is a special and strong natural immune regulator which has dual effects: when the host has a relatively normal level of immune status, it down regulates immune function, when host is at relatively lower immune status, it up regulates immune functions; but when host is at a very low level of immune status, it just gives rise to a transient and weak immune response. Therefore, based on our studies, malariotherapy seems more suitable for treatment of HIV-positive patients with CD4 cell level at 499~200/µL.

Well, yes, it sounds like such research has been blocked here, doesn't it? I wonder how many people (especially children) died because of the prejudice against artesunate. It's derived from a Chinese herb. Back in '92 when I had a super-drug-resistant strain of P. falciparum (the deadly type of malaria) in Cambodia, the treatment was worse than the disease. One of the German doctors who treated me felt sorry for me, and knowing I was going back to my remote island (it took me a week's travel to get to a clinic for treatment from my island) and slipped me some artesunate, explaining to me that it was "illegal" but very effective.

Soon after I arrived back to my island, the villagers summoned me to help "the dying man." He was having convulsions and the monks were already preparing his funeral. I suspected P. falciparum gone cerebral, but tested his reflexes to make sure it wasn't Tetanus (that's how bad he was). With nothing to lose (he was at death's door), I mixed the artesunate in with some Pepto Bismol and poured it down the guy's throat. In only two hours, he was sitting up and feeling fine. He never suffered any side effects, either. I was astounded. Everyone was. I became known by the people as "The White Witch of Kiri Sakor" because they considered this guy's amazing recovery as a sort of magical miracle. But it was just some little Chinese pills in Pepto.

Some months later, I was med-evaced to Bangkok with rat bite fever (not very glamorous, I know) and what should come on the TV in my hotel room as I was recuperating but a BBC documentary on Brit doctors in Africa up in arms because the use of artesunate was not sanctioned, yet was very effective in saving lives (especially in children and cases of drug-resistant strains) where all other drugs failed and did not have the nasty and even dangerous side effects of some of other drugs used against strains resistant to standard antimaliarals.

Thanks to the pressure exerted by these Good Samaritan doctors, aresunate is now sanctioned and saving many lives.

Perhaps this "malariatherapy" may not produce a cure for HIV/AIDS in and of itself, but may produce a better understanding of the disease and lead to a cure. Who knows? If I were HIV+, after reading this study, I'd volunteer to be one of these guys' guinea pigs.

[xzins]

Hey, doc, can you comment on #15?

[wonders]

...since HIV is common in countries with malaria, and population studies would show if it controlled it

Well, apparently the interaction between malaria and AIDS was duly noted in Africa, as you can see from the study's references:

References 1. Lockwood DNJ and Weber JN. Parasite infection in AIDS. Parastol Today 1989; 5:310-15.
2. Riley EM, Anderson G, Otoo LN, et al. Cellular immune responses to Plasmodium falciparum antigens in Gambian children during and after an acute attack of falciparum malaria. Clin Exp Immunol 1988; 73: 17-22.
3. Chandramohan D, Greenwood BM. Is there an interaction between human immunodeficiency virus and Plasmodium falciparum? Int J Epidemiol 1998; 27:296-301.
4. Davachi F, Kabongo L and Nagule K. Decreased mortality from malaria in children with symptomatic HIV infection (abstract W. A. 1291). Proceedings of the VI International Conference on AIDS. Florence, 1990.
5. Kalyesubula I, Musoke-Mudido P, Marum L, et al. Effects of malaria infection in human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected Ugandan children. Pediatr Infect Dis J 1997; 16: 876-81.
6. Greenberg AE, Nsa W, Ryder RW, et al. Plasmodium falciparum malaria and perinatally acquired human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection in Kinshasa, Zaire. N Engl J Med 1991; 325: 105-09.
7. Marussig M, Rénia L, Mazier D. Interactions between AIDS viruses and malaria parasites: a role for macrophages? Res Virol 1996; 147:139-45.
8. Heimlich HJ, Chen XP, Xiao BQ, et al. Malariotherapy for HIV patients. Mech Ageing Dev 1997; 93:79-85.
9. Chen XP, Heimlich HJ, Xiao BQ, et al. Phase-1 studies of malariotherapy for HIV infection. Chin Med Sci J 1999; 14:224-28.
10. Worku S, Björkman A, Troye-Blomberg M, et al. Lymphocyte activation and subset redistribution in peripheral blood in acute malaria illness: distinct γδ+ T cell patterns in Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax infections. Clin Exp Immunol
1997; 108: 34-41. 11. Kimpen JL and Ogra PL. T cell redistribution kinetics after secondary infection of BALB/c mice with respiratory syncytial virus. Clin Exp Immunol 1993; 91:78-82.
12. Fahey JL. Minireview: Cytokines, plasma immune activation markers, and clinically relevant surrogate markers in human immunodeficiency virus infection. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol 1998; 5: 597-603.
13. Fan J, Bass HZ and Fahey JL. Elevated IFNγ and decreased IL-2 expression are associated with HIV infection. J Immunol 1993; 151: 5031-37.
14. Migot F, Ouedraogo JB, Diallo J, et al. Selected P. falciparum specific immune responses are maintained in AIDS adults in Burkino Faso. Parasite Immunology 1996; 18: 333-39.

Well, it goes on and on and on. You can click the link in #24 to see it all.

[boris]

You lead an interesting--and dangerous--life.

Good luck; you appear to need all you can get.

--Boris

[wonders]

Those days are over. The most dangerous thing I do is drive in Atlanta traffic these days. But thanks!

[drlevy88]

There are drugs that elevate body temperature. Why use a parasite, which will weaken the body in other ways?

[Jemian]

Might there be a black market for malaria mosquitos around the corner?

If there is, let me know. I have several million of them critters incubating in my backyard.

I reckon there might be something in this. I currently have malaria. And I DON'T have AIDS.

Freepmail me with where you want them anaphales, or however you spell it, sent.

[equus]

There is increasing interest in hyperthermia--whether through infection, chemicals, or contraptions where they put you in a semi coma and heat up your entire body, or take your blood out and heat it--various methods to heat the body to treat infection and cancer.

Many organisms are heat sensitive--thats why our own body makes a fever. Fever boosts the immune system as well. And many drugs are more effective in the presence of heat, such as cancer drugs and antibiotics. So...

Malaria can be cured, but sometimes it becomes chronic. I'd rather see them study HOW this works and then try to find safer ways to do it as it has wide application.

[equus]

Syphilis and lyme are caused by bacteria called spirochetes.

They are heat sensitive. Syphilis more so than lyme.