Treponema pallidum (causes the sexually transmitted disease syphilis)

Life > Eubacteria > Phylum: Spirochaetes

In 1927 J. Wagner von Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work in treating syphilis using malaria. Patients were innoculated with the malaria pathogen (Plasmodium) from which three or four bouts of fever resulting from this infection were enough to burn up the temperature-sensitive syphilis bacteria. Once cured of syphilis, the patient was give quinine to get rid of the malaria. In the 1950s this treatment of syphilis was replaced by the use of antibiotics.