Weak Electric Current and Viral Infections

Dr. Steven Kaali, a gynecologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, has patented what he believes is a way to kill viral infections by exposing blood to weak electric currents.

The basic principle is simple: electric current as strong as that used by a cardiac pacemaker will immobilize a virus but appears weak enough to leave the much larger blood cells unharmed.

Thus far, the hospital has conducted laboratory tests in conjunction with Baxter International Inc. on blood infected with the AIDS virus. The blood was pumped to a location between two platinum electrodes, and Dr. Kaali said that about 95 percent of the viruses had lost their infectious ability after a six-minute exposure to a current of about 100-millionths of an amp. The chief advantage, he said, is that the treatment did not appear to harm the blood itself or have other toxic effects.

Dr. Kaali said the treatment could be incorporated into something like a kidney dialysis machine, which removes a patient's blood, filters out accumulated poisons and returns it to the body. Kaali (along with co-inventorPeter Schwolsky) filed for a patent on this implantable electrifying device on Nov 16, 1990 and nine months later was granted patent #5,139,684 on August 18, 1992 and one can search this patent from USPTO