African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic ... - Blackherbals.com

Continued from page 1 – Gambia’s President Can Cure AidsThe biggest concern is that the Gambian leader requirespatients to cease their anti-retroviral drugs, a move thatrisks weakening their immune systems and making themeven more prone to infection, said Dr. Antonio Filipe Jr.,head of the World Health Organization in neighboringSenegal.WHO: ‘There is no cure for AIDS’Since January, when he announced his cure to a gatheringof foreign diplomats, Jammeh has thrown thebureaucratic machinery of this small West Africancountry behind the claim. The last six news releases onGambia’s official Web site are dedicated to thepresident’s treatment, available to Gambians free ofcharge. Regular radio and TV addresses publicize it andthe Health Ministry has issued a declaration of support.Although the HIV rate is relatively low in Gambiacompared to other African nations — 1.3 percent of thecountry’s 1.6 million people are infected — thepresident’s claim has left international healthorganizations in a bind.WHO’s Filipe was diplomatic about Jammeh’s claims,saying his organization respects the president’s point ofview. But, he added: “As the World Health Organization,we would like to state quite clearly the following — No.1: so far there is no cure for AIDS.”Jammeh, a 41-year-old former army colonel who wrestedgained control in a 1994 coup, says his treatment isentirely voluntary and argues that his medications cannotbe mixed with other drugs because “I don’t want anycomplications.”The claim of a cure has prompted comparisons to theSouth African minister of health who won internationalridicule last year for suggesting that a diet of garlic, beetroot and lemon juice is more effective than anti-retroviraldrugs. South African President Thabo Mbeki has beenaccused of not addressing the epidemic: His governmentdid not provide AIDS drugs until a lawsuit by AIDSactivists forced it to in 2002.Jammeh has gone to great lengths to prove his claim,sending blood samples of the first nine patients to a lab inSenegal for testing.A letter on the lab’s stationery indicates that of the nine,four had undetectable viral loads, one had a moderateviral load and three had high loads, a result posted on thegovernment’s Web site as proof of a cure.However, the lab technician who performed the testswarned they are not conclusive since the blood sampleswere only taken after the treatment.“There is no baseline ... You can’t prove that someone hasbeen cured of AIDS from just one data point. It’s dishonestof the Gambian government to use our results in this way,”said Dr. Coumba Toure Kane, head of the molecularbiology unit at Senegal’s Cheikh Anta Diop University.Waiting in plastic chairs for treatment at the presidentialcompound last week, Jammeh’s patients said they don’tneed lab results to tell them they feel better.“It feels as if the president took the pain out of my body,”Ousman Sowe, 54, told the AP. Diagnosed with HIV in1996, he is among the first nine men and women Jammehhas treated and has been under the Gambian leader’s carefor nearly a month.“My appetite has come back and I have gained weight,”said Lamin Ceesay, thin from a nine-year battle with HIV.Jammeh has refused to disclose details of his herbalconcoction, saying only that it uses seven plants, “three ofwhich are not from Gambia.”‘You will all be cured’Treatment begins with the president applying the greenpaste, stored inside a deli-style plastic container. Nextcomes a gray-colored solution contained in an old Evianbottle and splashed on the patient’s skin. This is followedby a yellowish, tealike brew which patients are asked todrink. The therapy is administered many times over severalweeks.After the treatment session last week, Jammeh emergedcarrying a tall wooden staff, a string of Islamic prayerbeads and a leather-bound Quran. In front of him, 30 newpatients waited on lawn chairs, drawn from the roughly20,000 people currently living with HIV in Gambia.He told them that during treatment, they must ceasedrinking alcohol, tea and coffee. They also cannot eat kolanuts or have sex.Jammeh then held up the Quran, pointing it at each of thepatients: “In the name of Allah, in three to 30 days you willall be cured,” he said.The patients were then herded into a minibus and driven toan empty hospital ward on the outskirts of the capital,where they will stay in dormitory-style rooms with sheetscovering the windows.Lying on a mat on the tiled floor in the hospital ward, a 19-year-old girl struggled to say her name, spitting graycoloredphlegm into her scarf. Like everyone else in theconcrete ward, she is banned from taking anti-retroviraldrugs.Nearby was 25-year-old Amadou Jallow, who recently quithis job at a tourist hotel after his mother was diagnosedwith AIDS. Continued on page 7-2-Traditional African Clinic – October 2007