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African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 2, Issue 7 NEWSLETTER July 2007FEATURED ARTICLESHerbal Cure for HIV/AIDSBy Kunle SanyaoluThe GuardianA SMALL, innocuous story on the Human ImmunoDeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune DeficiencySyndrome (HIV/AIDS) appeared on page 3 of TheGuardian on Monday, with the headline "Institutediscovers herbal cure for AIDS, say forestry boss." Thestory was a short six-paragraph story. Even morestriking, is the fact that only the first two paragraphsrelate to the headline. It read: "Hope of a lasting cure tothe dreaded HIV/AIDS brightened at the weekend asthe Executive Director of the Forestry ResearchInstitute of Nigeria (FRIN), Dr. Solomon Badejodisclosed that the institute has discovered medicinalplants for the treatment of the disease and other similarailments. An elated Badejo disclosed this in IbadanOyo State capital while conducting the Minister ofEnvironment, Housing and Urban Development, chiefHelen Esuene round the institute." The four otherparagraphs in the story were about some achievementsrecorded by the institute over the years.Perhaps the story was short because of the absence ofdetails about the institute's discovery on HIV/AIDS.Certainly the report and statements credited to theExecutive Director were sketchy. However, this is not astory one dismisses casually. The reason is that theHIV/AIDS scourge has been shown to be real endemicand spreading wildly. Years of research have notproduced a cure to any popular level. In the past, claimsof a cure have been subjected to much public scrutinythat often left the claimant emotionally bruised. Theclaim of one Dr. Abalaka is still fresh. Yet there ishardly any disease that has so much stigma attached toit like HIV/AIDS. This has to do partly with the fact ofits being transmittable through sexual contact. The factthat HIV/AIDS can be transmitted through variousother channels has not reduced its stigma. So, thepublic sees anyone identified with the disease as beingsexually promiscuous, even if he contracted it throughblood transfusion. Experts have said once that thestigma of HIV/AIDS is posing more burdens to somepatients than the disease itself. Any claim of a curemust be handled thoroughly and explored fully. Africaowes a duty to itself to find a cure for HIV/AIDS. Butit must be ready to contend with blackmail andinternational treacheries to discourage it andundermine her efforts. AIDS is real, but the westernworld is doing a lot to entrench not just the reality butthe myth about it being incurable and rampant inAfrica.As the most populous black nation in the world,Nigeria can find a cure to HIV/AIDS. Blood-relateddiseases are many in Nigeria and Africa, the readyexample being malaria. Even now, malaria isconsidered to be the greatest killer-disease in Africa.Orthodox medicine over the past 60 years has done alot to reduce malaria-induced death. And we know alsothat malaria incidence can be reduced or managed bymaintaining a clean environment, clearing bushes andstagnant water among others. More importantly,medical evolution over the years - with chloroquineand now artemisin-based therapies, are providingreasonable forces against malaria. Yet the battle is notwon as the disease keeps adapting to the onslaughtagainst it and developing resistance to the drugs.Malaria may be a common ailment in Africa now, butit is a most difficult disease to treat. To compound theproblem in Nigeria is the high incidence of fake andadulterated or substandard drugs, which pose evengreater danger to patients and the society. Yet, thereare people who live in the midst of malaria infectedenvironment and hardly ever catch malaria. Some ofthem don't know why. But others strongly believe theirseeming immunity is due to their regular intake ofherbal therapies. That is why in spite of orthodoxmedical reports frequently raising alarm about the hightoxicity of some herbs and the absence of informationabout others, Nigerians cannot desist from takingthem.Continued on page 5-4-Traditional African Clinic – October 2007
Continued from page 4 – Herbal Cure for HIV/AIDSThere is need for people like Dr. Badejo and otheradministrators of research institutes as well as medicalcentres to document their finding and present them tothe appropriate ministries. The ministries of health,environment, science and others should be interestedin what Badejo is saying. But the interest should not belimited to running down the finding or seeking tonullify it against some western standard. In the past,medical authorities have been too anxious to knockdown a cure claim, much because it did not meet somewestern-set standard. The western world is never goingto come to Africa's aid in the real sense of it becausewestern countries are making a fortune from theHIV/AIDS campaign. They do donate huge sums topoor African countries to combat the scourge. Butthese gestures have always been offered with verystringent conditions that offer benefit more to thedonor countries than to the aided ones.The HIV/AIDS' industry is a big one. We in Africaprobably may not easily know the extent to which thecampaign is helping to sustain western countries. Inthe long run, we have to help ourselves in searchingfor HIV/AIDS cure. In the long run too, herbalmedicine probably offers the greatest possibility. Weneed to get over the age- old stigma of holdingtraditional or herbal medicine as being difficult todocument. When westerners say this, the intention isnot to promote herbal cure in any form. And whenAfricans or Nigerians echo the statement, they arefalling prey to western strategy to perpetuallydominate us.At the moment, many hospitals are turning downpatients whose ailment they cannot understand. Theybrand them as being under spiritual attack. Many suchpatients actually respond to herbal treatment whengiven by authentic traditional doctors. And there aremany of these doctors around who confidently layclaim to treating HIV/AIDS and other pandemics.What is lacking now is spirited effort by the healthauthorities to mobilise these people, subject them torigorous test with a view to assessing their claim andfinding a true cure. This will require a drastic and offhandedapproach which unfortunately is apparently notbeing favoured. But we have to conduct research onblood-cleaning remedies through herbs and traditionalmedicine.Apart from a cure for HIV/AIDS, orthodox medicalresearch has also not been able to answer manyquestions on the issue. Researches conducted incountries where the scourge is widespread tend toshow some people exposed to the risk yet seeminglyimmune from contracting the disease. Why? Some oftentest HIV-positive but never develop AIDS symptoms.Why? One thing is certain. The scourge is endemic andpervasive among very poor people with degradingenvironment. Certainly, it has close affinity to poverty, aspoor people are less likely to feed adequately and aretherefore likely to be less resistant to diseases. TheHIV/AIDS is about a reduction in the body's natural abilityto repel and fight diseases. Unfortunately, when ThaboMbeki, President of South Africa tried to make a case onpoverty reduction as a way to perceive the disease, he wasshouted down into submission. And his opponents simplypoint to growing incidence of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.The fact remains however that factors such as illiteracy,poverty and unhealthy environment support the spread ofthe disease.One reason why Nigerians must face the initiative infinding herbal cure for HIV/AIDS is that anti-retroviraldrugs that are presently meant to suppress the developmentof AIDS in HIV patients are expensive and not easilyaccessible by patients. They are manufactured largelyabroad. Their importation is a big drain on the localeconomy. They are known to make patients verydependent on them such that once they are off the drug,their deterioration is rapid, as they cannot generateimmunity or resistance. And the drugs are known topossess a large dose of unpleasant side effects that poseanother set of health crises to patients.Questions have been asked by learned medical professorsin and out of Africa as to whether there is no internationalconspiracy about HIV/AIDS against Africa. Largely, theWestern world tries to portray Africa as having the worstform of promiscuity and sexual practices. Is this true?Originally, HIV/AIDS was associated with homosexualswho are prevalent in the Western countries. Now, the sameWest tries to trace HIV/AIDS origin to some Africanmonkeys. Nigeria has not sufficiently pondered on thesequestions for reasons bordering largely on bad governance.But we cannot continue to ignore them because in the longrun, the HIV/AIDS ratio may very well be in form ofNigeria against the rest of the world. We may be able toavoid this stigma by finding herbal cure for the disease.http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/editorial_opinion/article03☻☻☻☻☻☻☻-5-Traditional African Clinic – October 2007
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