Thursday, January 31, 2008

Criticism of malariotherapy pre-dates Wulsin’s political career

Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Photo courtesy of here.

A recent campaign mailer from Steve Black (who is running against Vic Wulsin for the Democratic nomination in Ohio’s 2nd congressional race) cites an active complaint with the Ohio State Medical Board against Dr. Wulsin’s license.  Those supporting Wulsin are likely to call this a political maneuver, but her involvement with malariotherapy (the subject of the complaint) pre-dates her relatively recent political career, and these malariotherapy experiments have been characterized as “bizarre” and “charlatan.” So politics aside, Black’s campaign mailer raises important questions about not only Wulsin, but the larger medical issues surrounding malariotherapy.

Thanks to the WayBack machine, we can see this 2004 snapshot of The Heimlich Institute’s web page.  In fact, according to an article uploaded to Heimlich’s former site and published in 2002, “Malariotherapy is the only treatment for HIV patients today with the potential to control the AIDS pandemic and at low cost. Malariotherapy’s scientific basis and safety is clearly established.”

There’s just one problem with Heimlich’s claim:  medical experts had been crying foul about these medical experiments on human subjects in China for over a decade.

In 1994, the LA Times, published this article, which includes the following excerpts:

Even The Cincinnati Enquirer covered the story back in 2003, in this piece by Robert Anglen:

So with widely publicized criticism of and outrage towards Heimlich’s work spanning 1994-2003, one must wonder why Wulsin got on board with the Heimlich Institute in 2004, when she wrote this draft report outlining how to develop a “market niche” for malariotherapy (which she suggested renaming “immunotherapy” due to bad publicity).  From the introduction of her report:

And here’s Wulsin’s marketing concept, with the italics added:

Interestingly, Wulsin said back in 2006 that the idea for malariotherapy has “no scientific validity,”—which is interesting given her “Programmatic Next Steps” outlined above.  One might also wonder why Wulsin would include the following in her report, if she believed it had no validity:  “Further field studies of Immunotherapy, including Phase III and IV clinical trials, require the verification of the encouraging results from East Africa, elaboration on discrepancies between them and the results from the Phase II trial in China, and professional dissemination and transparent discussion with scientists, physicians, and other stakeholders.”

It is unclear why something with no validity requires further study and renaming.

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QCQT says:
31 Jan 2008  at  09:58 am | #

Philadelphia Daily News (PA) February 29, 1988

HEIMLICH USES MALARIA TO TREAT CANCER
Philadelphia Daily News (PA), February 29, 1988
Author: Associated Press
Dateline: CLEVELAND

Dr. Henry Heimlich, the physician who developed a maneuver to save choking victims, is trying to treat cancer patients in Mexico by deliberately giving them malaria, a newspaper reported.

Heimlich has treated three people at a Mexico City hospital since December by infecting them with a non-lethal strain of malaria on the belief that the 103- to 104-degree fever produced by the disease kills cancer cells, The Cleveland Plain Dealer said yesterday.

Heimlich, 67, believes that malaria, in addition to killing cancer through fever, can stimulate the body’s natural immune system to fight cancer.

Malaria is an infection caused by parasitic micro-organisms and is spread by mosquitoes. It causes high fevers, sweating and chills.

Some medical researchers say Heimlich’s procedures should be tested first on laboratory animals and tissue cultures. They also said they were skeptical about the quality of cancer research in Mexico. U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said Heimlich’s so-called “malariatherapy” was “not an acceptable treatment or therapy.”

Heimlich, contacted yesterday at his home in Cincinnati, said that describing his work as “south-of-the-border research...is despicable.” He said cancer research regulations in Mexico were more stringent than those in the United States.

Heimlich, a professor at Xavier University in Cincinnati and head of the Heimlich Institute, said he developed his theories after he said studies showed that Third World nations with high malaria rates had low incidences of cancer.

Arbogast says:
02 Feb 2008  at  10:28 am | #

The Wulsin for Congress campaign just issued a response to the Black for Congress campaign mailer. Documents are here: http://tinyurl.com/2d6p6n

Here is how Team Wulsin responded to the above issues:

RHETORIC
Black: The President of the National Council Against Health Fraud has requested an investigation of Wulsin by the Ohio State Medical Board on charges that she covered up unethical medical experiments.

REALITY
The Ohio State Medical Board has taken no action against Wulsin because the charges are false. [Link to Ohio State Medical Board, License Search: http://tinyurl.com/39z643 ]

Anon says:
03 Feb 2008  at  02:43 am | #

File this thread under “WHO CARES?”

Wulsin will win over “Mean Jean,” PERIOD. END OF DISCUSSION.

Informed Dissent says:
03 Feb 2008  at  09:11 am | #

Re: “who cares?,” obviously NCAHF does. They filed a complaint against Dr. Wulsin’s license. Equally obvious, the Beacon cares. The Dean as been reporting on Wulsin’s association with the Heimlich Institute’s medical atrocity experiments for years. 

Facts raise legitimate questions about Dr. Wulsin’s judgment, both as a medical professional and as a politician. For example:

1) Per the above Beacon item, the Heimlich Institute’s experiments on Third World patients had received decades of widely-reported criticism, especially the 2003 exposes of the China experiments which involved the clandestine participation of UCLA professors as reported on the front page of the Enquirer. Only a year later, why would Dr. Wulsin be foolish enough to get involved with the Heimlich malariotherapy project, let alone consider becoming the Director of the Heimlich Institute as she has publicly admitted?

2) Phil Heimlich is the vice president of the Heimlich Institute. Slice it any way you like; Vic Wulsin was working for Phil Heimlich, arguably the hardest-right Republican in Southern Ohio. Since then, his fortunes have nose-dived, but
in 2004 he was the powerful president of the county commission. At the time, Dr. Wulsin obviously had aspirations of running for political office as a Democrat. How could she be daft enough go to work for an organization so closely associated with someone like Phil Heimlich?

While covering one’s ears and loudly proclaiming “nyah-nyah I can’t hear you” may be Anon 2:43’s response, others may demand substantive answers from Dr. Wulsin before they decide to vote her into national office.