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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.

Heiml ich, 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."

H eimlich, 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....