4. Treating Syphilis With Malaria
Talk about fighting fire with fire. Malaria kills millions of people every year and fighting it has become one of the greatest medical battles of our time. However, in the 1920s, doctors discovered that it had one unexpected side-effect. Turns out that the extreme fever caused by malaria is actually hot enough to kill the bacteria that cause syphilis. Seeing as this is exactly what a fever is supposed to do, this makes a lot of sense. Dr. Julius Wagner-Jauregg, who came up with this bizarre cure, won the Nobel Prize for his discovery in 1927. This is despite the fact that 15% of his patients died as a result of the treatment, although it was argued that those patients were going to die of syphilis anyway so, hey, why not? The practice has now been abandoned, but for Dr. Henry Heimlich (of Heimlich Maneuver fame), who has recommended malariotherapy as a cure for cancer, Lyme disease and even AIDS. Needless to say, this is not medically recommendable.