# Contracting one disease to cure another **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 6, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026 "2012-04-06T19:50:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vicullum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Vicullum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicullum)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/1 "2012-04-06T19:50:37Z")
I was reading up on [malaria on wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_malaria) when I came across this: “In the early twentieth century, before antibiotics, patients with syphilis were intentionally infected with malaria to create a fever. In the 1920s Julius Wagner-Jauregg, a Viennese psychiatrist, began to treat neurosyphilitics with induced P. vivax malaria. Three or four bouts of fever were enough to kill the temperature-sensitive syphilis bacteria (Spirochaeta pallida also known as Treponema pallidum).” That got me thinking, what other maladies/infections/diseases can cancel out others of its kind? Are there any modern treatments that use the enemy-of-my-enemy kind of approach to medicine? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/2 "2012-04-06T20:01:25Z")
> [@Vicullum](#): > > I was reading up on [malaria on wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_malaria) when I came across this: > > “In the early twentieth century, before antibiotics, patients with syphilis were intentionally infected with malaria to create a fever. In the 1920s Julius Wagner-Jauregg, a Viennese psychiatrist, began to treat neurosyphilitics with induced P. vivax malaria. Three or four bouts of fever were enough to kill the temperature-sensitive syphilis bacteria (Spirochaeta pallida also known as Treponema pallidum).” I’m afraid I can’t answer your question, but dying of malaria is no picnic, either. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/3 "2012-04-06T20:04:37Z")
That’s how vaccination was invented – Edward Jenner discovered that those who had had cowpox where then immune to smallpox. As cowpox is a fairly minor disease (at least compared to smallpox), and so he had people infected with a small amount of the cowpox virus, which then gave them immunity to smallpox. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/4 "2012-04-06T20:39:07Z")
> [@Vicullum](#): > > That got me thinking, what other maladies/infections/diseases can cancel out others of its kind? Are there any modern treatments that use the enemy-of-my-enemy kind of approach to medicine? The first thing that came to my mind was basically the history of Vaccinations/Innoculations. Edward Jenner used Cowpox innoculations to prevent others from catching the more severe illness Smallpox. [Cite:](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/) > [@](#): > > While Jenner’s interest in the protective effects of cowpox began during his apprenticeship with George Harwicke, it was 1796 before he made the first step in the long process whereby smallpox, the scourge of mankind, would be totally eradicated. For many years, he had heard the tales that dairymaids were protected from smallpox naturally after having suffered from cowpox. Pondering this, Jenner concluded that cowpox not only protected against smallpox but also could be transmitted from one person to another as a deliberate mechanism of protection. In May 1796, Edward Jenner found a young dairymaid, Sarah Nelms, who had fresh cowpox lesions on her hands and arms (Figure ​(Figure33). On May 14, 1796, using matter from Nelms’ lesions, he inoculated an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps. Subsequently, the boy developed mild fever and discomfort in the axillae. Nine days after the procedure he felt cold and had lost his appetite, but on the next day he was much better. In July 1796, Jenner inoculated the boy again, this time with matter from a fresh smallpox lesion. No disease developed, and Jenner concluded that protection was complete Many vaccines use this mechanism- developing Antibodies to a certain less virulent strain of an illness, may protect one from other more virulent strains (but then there’s mutations and all sorts of other fun things in the background too). Another example would be Immunizations vs. Hepatitis B can prevent Hepatitis D infections, since Hep D (a cause of a more severe\* fulminant hepatitis\*) can only infect/spread in its host if there is a Co-infection with Hepatitis B. However, being treated with the HepB vaccine will confer protection from Hepatitis B, and thus also help prevent Hepatitis D inadvertently. Or if you’re thinking more about needing one bug to kill another- then it can be as simple as increased risks of yeast infections (mostly in females) after a course of antibiotics. The antibiotics can help wipe out the “good/normal” bacteria (Lactobaccillis if memory serves me), and that can lead to other bugs not normally dominant in the environment to have a chance to take over- such as Candida/Yeast. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/5 "2012-04-06T20:46:09Z")
Not a disease, but there’s a condition known as achilles tendonosis where the injury to the tendon has gone on so long that the body no longer mounts an inflammatory response to it. They can use a radiofrequency ablation procedure that basically puts a grid of small holes in the tendon provoking an acute inflammatory response to get you back in the business of restoring homeostasis. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/6 "2012-04-06T20:52:23Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > That’s how vaccination was invented – Edward Jenner discovered that those who had had cowpox where then immune to smallpox. As cowpox is a fairly minor disease (at least compared to smallpox), and so he had people infected with a small amount of the cowpox virus, which then gave them immunity to smallpox. That worked only because the two diseases were so similar biologically, so much so that if the body’s defenses could handle one, they were prepared to handle the other. Unless you can show that malaria has a lot in common with syphilis DNA-wise, your analogy doesn’t work. Besides, the OP was postulating that the increased temperature caused by a fever is what killed the syph. He wasn’t suggesting that the two had much in common – supposedly elevating the body temp with heat would have had the same beneficial effect. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/7 "2012-04-06T21:04:03Z")
Some people are looking into using [hookworm infestations to cure allergies](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/health/01iht-01prof.14122951.html?pagewanted=all). The scientific studies look promising but I suspect that more needs to be done before it really turns into a legitimate treatment. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/8 "2012-04-07T02:55:25Z")
Not what you asked, but related . . . I won’t give cites (but I assure you they exist) and will just state that both kidney cancer ([renal cell carcinoma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renal_cell_carcinoma)) and certain skin cancer ([malignant melanoma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malignant_melanoma)) were both known to occasionally undergo what seemed to be spontaneous regression. It was rare but quite well documented (in fact, some of those testimonials you hear about how “I had two months to live but then I tried Dr. Jones Antineoplastin Syrup™” are from people with those cancers). In any case, a bit of detective work showed that in some of those cases where there had been regression of melanoma and renal cell carcinoma, there had also been a recent viral illness. That started the search for the mechanism and eventually it was determined that the [interferon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferon) produced by the body in response to some viral infections can induce melanoma and kidney cancer to regress. The field of cancer immunotherapy (especially for [melanoma](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmoffittcancercenter.org%2FCCJRoot%2Fv9n1%2Fpdf%2F22.pdf&ei=Oqt_T_ayIrLE0AHJpo33Bw&usg=AFQjCNEJOq21K1FoIB9_QhxCaOpgWPgtwQ&sig2=vXG-D4viWwppEpwWfMyjog) and [kidney cancer](http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdi/2010/284581/)) was born. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/9 "2012-04-07T05:08:35Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Some people are looking into using [hookworm infestations to cure allergies](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/health/01iht-01prof.14122951.html?pagewanted=all). The scientific studies look promising but I suspect that more needs to be done before it really turns into a legitimate treatment. In a somewhat related fashion, tapeworm segments were once used to cure obesity. Now you’re no longer fat, but you’re infested with parasites! ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/10 "2012-04-07T14:09:25Z")
Maybe not what you’re looking for, but my father’s bladder cancer was treated with Bovine Tuberculosis. Some more info here: [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332207001060](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332207001060) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/11 "2012-04-08T02:07:01Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > In a somewhat related fashion, tapeworm segments were once used to cure obesity. Now you’re no longer fat, but you’re infested with parasites! Haven’t maggots also been used to prevent gangrene? ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/12 "2012-04-08T13:07:17Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Haven’t maggots also been used to prevent gangrene? To clean off necrotic tissue, yes. [Maggot - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggots#Medical_treatment) ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contracting-one-disease-to-cure-another/618026/13 "2012-04-08T13:25:14Z")
And then of course you can swallow a cow, (I don’t know how you’d swallow a cow) But you’d swallow the cow to catch the goat, You’d swallow the goat to catch the dog, You’d swallow the dog to catch the cat, You’d swallow the cat to catch the bird, You’d swallow the bird to catch the spider, That wriggles and jiggles and tickles inside you, You’d swallow the spider to catch the fly, I don’t know why you swallowed that fly, Perhaps you’ll die