MALARIA AND AIDS EPIDEMICS IN AFRICA

Drugs have been shown to not be curative against HIV/AIDS. The

virus becomes resistant, there are severe side reactions to the
drugs, many patients cannot carry out the rigid regime, and the
virus settles in glands and in the brain where drugs cannot
penetrate.

The Heimlich Institute is using malariotherapy for treating HIV

(human immunodeficiency virus) infected patients. The basis for
this treatment is that a curable form of malaria is given to HIV
patients and the malaria is allowed to run for two to three weeks,
then the malaria is cured using common antimalarial medications.
Malaria boosts the immune system, therefore, overcoming the HIV
throughout the body. Immediate results of malariotherapy have
been very satisfactory: the immune cells, CD4 T-cells, increase
after two to three weeks of malaria and, with no further treatment
of any kind, remain at normal levels more than two years later, and
the patients remain well.

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) and malaria are

diseases of epidemic proportions in Africa. Some ask how this can
be so, if malariotherapy can help overcome HIV infection. To find
the answer, the Heimlich Institute did an extensive review of
published medical reports. The reasons malaria and AIDS coexist
in Africa is found in how these diseases are spread, their
distribution in Africa, and the need to use scientific standardization
of malariotherapy for proper treatment of HIV.

Evidence for the Safety and Effectiveness of Malariotherapy

in Africa
Our research to determine why AIDS and malaria coexist in Africa
provided extensive data confirming that malaria can effectively and
safely overcome HIV. Significant results that support this
conclusion include:

1. A study was presented at the International AIDS

Conference in Florence, Italy. It was carried out at a
children's hospital in the Congo and reported on 112
children with AIDS, 41 of whom also had malaria. The
findings revealed: "None of the 41 children with malaria and
AIDS died, all recovered from their malaria. However, of the
remaining 71 children with AIDS without malaria, 25 (35%)
died."
2. A U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) study of 587
children, at the same hospital in the Congo, concluded: "No
significant differences were found in the incidence, severity,
 or response to therapy of malaria between children with
progressive HIV-1 infection and the seronegative controls .
. . No evidence was found to suggest that malaria has any
role in accelerating the rate of progression of HIV-1
disease. . . . there is no adverse clinical or epidemiological
association between these two important public health
problems." Other studies also confirm that malaria is not an
opportunistic disease in HIV patients.
3. Additional evidence from other countries indicates that
malaria infection has a favorable effect in regards to HIV.
Three independent studies of malarial regions in
Venezuela, Indonesia and the Philippines showed that
people had HIV-type antibodies, but there was no AIDS in
that region. AIDS did exist, however, in nearby non-malarial
areas. The studies were carried out by researchers from
the University of Nebraska and two U.S. Navy Medical
Research teams.

Epidemiological
HIV in Africa was prevalent in the cities and almost non-existent in
rural areas. Malaria, on the other hand, is prevalent in the
countryside and uncommon in the cities.

1. Malaria has always been a rural disease because the

transmission vector is the mosquito. Malaria infected
mosquitos are common in the countryside, but far less
common in the cities, because they survive in swamps and
pools of water. Therefore, little malaria occurs in cities
because of low mosquito population.
2. The New York Times, November 15,1998: "In Africa, the
disease (AIDS) attacks educated urban professionals --the
backbone of economic expansion -- first ... A well-known
study in Rwanda showed that a pregnant woman had a 9
percent chance of infection if her husband was a farmer, a
32 percent chance if he was a white-collar worker and a 38
percent chance if he was a Government official."
3. Increased trade travel between cities resulted in the spread
of HIV into small communities lining the major roads
connecting the cities in Africa; such spread has been
mainly the result of sexual transmission via prostitution, a
major service industry along the main highways. Interaction
of rural dwelling people with the roadside communities
resulted in slow dissemination of AIDS into the countryside.
4. An additional mode of transmission that hastened the
spread of HIV in Africa was blood transfusions, which are
often given to counter the anemia found in malaria patients.
Most countries in Africa lack the ability to adequately
screen blood used for transfusions. (Even in the U.S., HIV
infected Red Cross blood spread HIV to hundreds of
people.)

The Scientific Basis for Malariotherapy

No viral infection has ever been cured by drugs, not even a cold.
The purpose of the immune system, on the other hand, is
specifically to recognize inimical biological challenges -- such as
bacteria and viruses -- and eliminate them. Numerous studies
have shown that malaria causes the patient's immune system to
increase production of a variety of immune substances, such as
interferons and interleukins, which can help kill viruses. If the
immune system has not been too damaged (a consequence of
prolonged HIV infection), it is still capable of generating a virus
killing response. In a short course of malaria, this boost is
beneficial; however, prolonged malaria damages the immune
system.

Why malaria infection in Africa does not wipe out AIDS

1. Having malaria, or having had it in the past, does not

prevent HIV infection. Malariotherapy is a treatment, not a
vaccine.
2. Prolonged malaria destroys the immune system. Malaria
boosts the immune system early in its course, but after a
period of time, the malaria damages the immune system.
Chronic malaria, recurrent or untreated, therefore,
compromises the immune system.
3. As soon as malaria is diagnosed in Africa, it is treated.
Curing malaria too early ( less than 2-4 weeks of malarial
fevers) does not adequately boost the immune system
enough to cure HIV. Falciparum malaria (the most common
malaria found in Africa, which becomes resistant to cure,
particularly if not treated very early in its course) has a
number of debilitating and fatal complications. Health
organizations in Africa, therefore, focus on identifying and
curing malaria as rapidly as possible. In contrast, vivax
malaria, the most common type of malaria in Asia and
South America, has relatively few complications and can
easily be cured with drugs; therefore, it is used for
malariotherapy.
The above NYT article also reported that the $15,000-
a-year AIDS drugs are economically out the question in
Africa, but "Most patients get the most common malaria
and TB drugs . . ." Most patients with malaria, therefore,
receive anti-malaria drugs early in the infection and do not
have the recommended two to three weeks of malaria
required to boost the immune system sufficient to cure HIV
infection.
4. In Africa, HIV/AIDS is usually diagnosed late in the course
of the disease. Most HIV infected people keep that fact
secret or do not have access to medical care. If the
immune system has been too severely damaged by HIV,
then nothing will cure or reverse the effects of HIV infection.
5. Malariotherapy was used in the United States for sixty
years as a treatment for tens of thousands of cases of
neurosyphilis. Drugs and penicillin were not effective in
treating neurosyphilis because there is a blood-brain barrier
to drugs. Malarial blood for injection was distributed by the
U.S. Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease
Control. Malariotherapy continued until neurosyphilis was
wiped out, in 1975. New cases did not appear because
early detection of syphilis allowed penicillin to cure the
disease before it developed into neurosyphilis. During that
period, based on the many thousands of cases,
malariotherapy was scientifically standardized. The induced
malaria was cured two to four weeks after injection, which
proved the method to be safe and effective. That is the
 same course being used for treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Haphazard spread of malarial infection in Africa is not
comparable.

Conclusions
There are two main reasons for the prevalence of AIDS in Africa.
The first of these is the distribution of AIDS cases in African
countries. Studies have shown that AIDS is more common in cities
than in rural areas. Since malaria is not common in cities, there is
little chance of an HIV-malaria interaction. Also, factors which
promote sexual transmission (i.e., large localized human
population, greater wealth available for paid sexual liaisons ) are
present in cities, thus hastening the spread of HIV.

The second reason for not seeing the benefits of a

malariotherapy-type interaction is due to the virulence of
falciparum malaria which is prevalent in Africa. In malariotherapy,
the induced vivax malaria is allowed to run for almost a month
before being cured. Because of risks associated with falciparum
malaria, malaria in Africa is treated immediately to attempt to cure
it. Such treatment minimizes the amount of immunostimulation
that patients receive; therefore patients' immune systems are not
boosted sufficiently to overcome HIV. This reason for not seeing
widespread effects of HIV-malaria interaction in Africa is supported
by noting that careful studies in Africa have shown that children
having both HIV and malaria has been lifesaving, whereas those
with AIDS alone had a high death rate. Those findings serve as
the primary basis for our use of malariotherapy for HIV.

The combination of geographical distribution of the two diseases

and the need to rapidly treat falciparum malaria essentially ensure
that serendipitous standardized malariotherapy seldom occurs in
Africa. This is particularly unfortunate because the relatively low
cost of malariotherapy and the benefits observed to date warrant
using malariotherapy to treat HIV/AIDS, providing a logical answer
to the African AIDS crisis.

Our clinical studies in China continue to prove the benefits that

malariotherapy has for HIV patients and to elucidate the
interaction of malaria with HIV. To this end, the Heimlich Institute is
working in conjuction with UCLA, gathering and analyzing data to
show what immunological factors are responsible for the benefits
derived from malariotherapy for HIV. It is our desire to analyze
malaria parasites to determine how to duplicate their ability to
stimulate the immune system with synthetic products that cause
the same effects in the immune system.