[xzins]

Extremely controversial technique

[expatpat]

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

[xzins]

This is the Heimlich of "choking" and "heimlich maneuver" fame.

[anniegetyourgun]

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.

[Dont Mention the War]

Well, at least if any of the nauseated patients start choking on their on their own vomit, they'll have the most-prepared man in the world standing by to save them.

[CurlyDave]

Think back ~ 10 years ago to the time when the entire medical establishment thought that ulcers were caused by stress, and that the only treatment possible was a bland diet.

Along came an Australian doctor who had some evidence that they were really the result of a bacterial infection. The grief he got from the establishment was quite similar to the problems described here.

He ultimately proved his point by infecting himself and then curing his own ulcers, because there was no funding for more traditional trials.

One might think the the medical establishment would have given him a medal for curing a previously incurable disease. Instead they tried to ride him out of town on a rail for the "unethical" behavior of experimenting on himself.

[Domestic Church]

The pharmaceutical companies will put the kabosh on this. If it can cure AIDS, Lyme disease and Cancer, that's a big bite of Mega $$$ lost to the pharma/techno/medico industries. It is a primitive method compared to modern techniques but that could rapidly be upgraded if it does work.


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

[nkycincinnatikid]

My first thought is that Heimlich's Amberly Village neighbor Stan Chesley is going to make BILLIONS with a Chinese class action over this.

[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!

[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.

[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.