Want to survive Ebola? Perhaps malaria infection can help?

In 1927, Austrian physician Julius Wagner-Jauregg won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the therapeutic value of malaria inoculation in the treatment of dementia paralytica associated with neurosyphilis infection. In the early 20th century, before the discovery of antibiotics, Dr. Jauregg’s treatment regimen—commonly called malariotherapy—was used to treat patients suffering from the syphilis bacteria Treponema pallidum. He inoculated patients with treatable species of malaria (Plasmodium vivax), as the extreme fevers associated with parasite infection were enough to kill the heat-sensitive bacteria. While close to 15% of patients died from the malaria infections, at the time this treatment course was deemed preferable to the almost-certain death from syphilis. Now, a study led by scientists from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that people infected with Ebola virus were...