The Nashville Tennessean, 10/29/04
Heimlich May Discuss Malaria Therapy for AIDS by Anita Wadhwani, Staff
Writer
He's known to the public for the life-saving maneuver that helps
choking victims, but among some in the medical community, Dr. Henry
Heimlich has become an increasingly controversial figure for his
theories on injecting AIDS and HIV patients with malaria.
In fact, his ideas are so controversial that it was difficult to get a
straight answer yesterday about whether Heimlich would still present
new findings from studies on so-called ''malariotherapy'' at 11 a.m.
today, as scheduled, at an international AIDS conference in Nashville.
Questions about his appearance arose after a re****ter's inquiries. A
woman who answered the telephone at Heimlich's Cincinnati home
yesterday wouldn't comment, and Heimlich couldn't be reached. However,
just before stepping on stage yesterday afternoon at PanAfrica
Conference 2004, organizer Leonard Madu responded that Heimlich would
be appearing.
Critics of Heimlich's theories, such as physician Robert Baratz, call
the idea of infecting those with HIV and AIDS with another potentially
deadly disease ''worse than s**** oil,'' a practice that could kill
instead of cure. Baratz is president of the National Council Against
Health Fraud, a medical watchdog group in Peabody, Mass.
But Heimlich, 84, said earlier this week that he's no stranger to
creative new ideas in medicine being dismissed by the establishment =97
just as his maneuver was once dismissed by the mainstream medical
community, which, he said, advocated backslapping choking victims
instead.
''I think there is always criticism of something new, OK?'' Heimlich
said. ''There is a French philosopher who said, 'On every causeway on
the road to the future, the progressive spirit is opposed by 1,000 men
appointed to guard the past.' I have a saying, too, which is: If all
your peers understand what you've done, you haven't been creative.''
The organizer of the conference at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel
for doctors, activists, faith-based workers and others says he does
not take a position on Heimlich's theories. The conference, in its
11th year, is devoted to a free flow of ideas about a disease. And no
one ought to be censored because no one has found a cure, said
organizer Madu.
Heimlich has been promoting the idea of using malaria to treat HIV and
AIDS for more than two decades, according to published re****ts.
Here's how it works, according to Heimlich: Inject someone who has HIV
or AIDS with a curable strain of malaria. The high fever and other
immune-boosting responses that accompany the disease help strengthen
the immune system to withstand the onslaught of HIV and AIDS. Cure the
malaria and you have a stronger person, he said. Heimlich doesn't know
if it's a cure, but it's certainly promising enough to research
further, he said.
Such research is illegal in the United States, according to Baratz, a
specialist in internal medicine who is on the faculty of the Boston
University School of Medicine.
Baratz likened malariotherapy to Nazi-era medical atrocities and the
condemned Tuskegee experiment in which healthy African-American men
were deliberately infected with syphilis.
In 2000, the FDA ordered Heimlich's organization, the Cincinnati-based
Heimlich Institute, to end malariotherapy experiments being conducted
on patients in China, according to published re****ts.
A University of California at Los Angeles AIDS researcher was censured
for his participation in that experiment, but because Heimlich does
not receive federal funds, he was not censured, according to Baratz.
Heimlich also has been criticized for other controversial theories,
such as promoting the use of the Heimlich maneuver for asthma attacks
and drowning victims.
The PanAfrica Conference draws about 300 to 500 participants
internationally each year to talk about strategies for stopping the
spread of the disease among blacks in the United States, Africa, the
Caribbean and elsewhere. This year, the conference also will look at
the rising rates of infection among Hispanics, Madu said.
Madu said he was aware of the controversy around Heimlich's
presentation, titled ''Treating HIV by Strengthening the Immune
System.'' However, he said he believed in freedom of speech at the
conference.
''There is no cure by having a monopoly of ideas,'' Madu said.
If you go
What: The PanAfrica Conference 2004
When: Today and tomorrow
Where: Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, 2025 MetroCenter Blvd.
For more info: For registration information, call 253-1391.
Anita Wadhwani can be reached at 259-8821 or awadhwani@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Copyright 2002 The Tennessean, A Gannett Co. Inc.
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