Henry Heimlich gets credit for curing choking. But he’s coming to Tacoma this weekend to talk about a more recent theory of his: to cure HIV by infecting people with malaria.

Wait! If malaria cures HIV then how is it that in huge portions of sub-Saharan Africa HIV and malaria both exist in epidemic proportions? Shouldn’t the one cancel out the othert?

Then there’s all that research that suggests the opposite is true: that malaria speeds up HIV.

So maybe it’s not such a swell idea to inject malaria into HIV-positive patients. Still, Heimlich was able to convince Chinese researchers it was worth a shot. More recently, he’s been interested in experiments in Africa. Yes, if there’s one thing that Africans need it’s more malaria.

But when you have a famous name it’s a lot easier to promote a theory like malaria-for-HIV. Example: The 86-year-old doctor is speaking Saturday afternoon at the Northwest Naturopathic Physicians Convention at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center. It costs $20 to listen to Heimlich lecture on “Treating Asthma, AIDS and Other Diseases Without Drugs.”

But Henry Heimlich’s estranged son tells a more interesting story — and he doesn’t charge. Peter Heimlich’s website was created to declare that the Heimlich legacy was built on fraud.

I wrote two articles on this bizarre subject for Radar Magazine, shortly before it folded. Part 1 and Part 2.