UCLA recently reopened a case examining the involvement of two
UCLA researchers with controversial malariotherapy experiments,
which involve the injection a curable form of malaria into human
HIV patients.

The initial allegations were brought to the attention of the
Institutional Review Board of the UCLA Office of Protection of
Research Subjects in early October of last year through an
anonymous e-mail directed to Steven Peckman, associate director of
Human Subjects Research for the OPRS.

In December the IRB came to the decision that Professor John
Fahey and Najib Aziz had not engaged or collaborated in the
malariotherapy research conducted in China by the Heimlich
Institute, a nonprofit organization in Cincinnati, Ohio.

According to Peckman, the IRB has received additional
information and the allegations are again under review.

Peckman could not be reached Monday to explain what new evidence
had been received.

A UCLA statement issued in November of last year stated that
Fahey “did not collaborate on the malaria studies” and
that “UCLA intends to ask Dr. Heimlich to omit UCLA from all
references relating to the malaria studies or other Heimlich
Institute research.”

Fahey, a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology
and Molecular Genetics, conducts AIDS research with the UCLA AIDS
Institute.

Fahey also offered AIDS control training to visiting scholars
from developing countries under the UCLA Fogarty AIDS International
Training and Researching Program established in 1997.

Aziz works as an immunology shared research supervisor for the
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Center for
Health Sciences.

Fahey and Aziz have collaborated on multiple research papers in
the past.

Both researchers are continuing to work in full capacity during
the ongoing investigation.

A medical paper on malariotherapy published in 1999 and
co-authored by Heimlich, known for inventing the Heimlich maneuver,
acknowledges Fahey and Aziz for their support and contributions to
the research.

The Heimlich Institute’s online newsletter also states
that Fahey visited malariotherapy patients in China after
requesting to take part in the research in 1996.

Heimlich proposed malariotherapy as a treatment for HIV in the
early 1990s, claiming the induced fevers could restore a weakened
immune system.

In April of 1993 the Center for Disease Control issued a public
health warning against malariotherapy for HIV treatment.

The IRB, responsible for reviewing all research protocol and
allegations involving the use of human and animal subjects, has no
regulatory authority over Heimlich, according to Peckman.