Gambia Pres. Discovers cure for AIDS

[CabbitCabbit]

...In a dream.

In Gambia, AIDS cure or false hope? - CNN.com

AIDS cure or sick joke by African president?
POSTED: 3:27 p.m. EDT, March 16, 2007
By Jeff Koinange

Story Highlights
• Gambian president says he has discovered a cure for AIDS
• Health officials believe he is bringing false hope to those suffering
• President has no medical degree, says treatment came to him in a dream
• Global health officials want to conduct scientific tests on the herbal concoction

BANJUL, Gambia (CNN) -- At the only hospital in the capital of this tiny West African nation, a 3-year-old AIDS patient named Suleiman receives his daily dose of medication -- a murky brown concoction of seven herbs and spices served out of a bottle that once contained pancake syrup.

The boy is told a spoonful a day will make him better. His mother, Fatuma, takes the same concoction, as do several dozen other AIDS and HIV patients here. Adults take two spoonfuls.

"It's amazing," Fatuma says. "Two weeks ago, I was very ill, weak and couldn't eat without vomiting."

This has become the treatment for HIV/AIDS patients here since early January, when Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced he had discovered a cure for the disease that has wreaked havoc across Africa. He made that announcement in front of a group of foreign diplomats, telling them the treatment was revealed to him by his ancestors in a dream.

His concoction has stirred controversy and anger among health officials who say the president's claims will bring false hope to the nation's more than 20,000 HIV/AIDS patients. They are also afraid that it could cause patients to stop taking the anti-retroviral drugs that have been proven to prolong life and improve quality of living.

One critic was Fadzai Gwaradzimba, the U.N. envoy to Gambia. She was abruptly kicked out of the country after saying on February 9 that patients should continue their normal treatment and that Jammeh's concoction be "assessed by an international team of experts."

"The U.N. system encourages all patients currently receiving anti-retroviral treatment to continue to comply with their recommended treatment regimens while the efficacy of the new treatment is being assessed," she said. (Read full statement)

The U.N. Development Program stands by the envoy's remarks. The World Health Organization has also been critical of Jammeh's treatment.
No formal medical training

Jammeh, 41, is a former army colonel who has no formal medical training. He wears white robes and carries a copy of the Quran with him in this mostly Muslim nation.

His degree is a high school diploma. But he claims his family has a history of healing people through traditional African medicine.

At the hospital in the capital, patients claim the president's concoction is making a difference to them.

Ousman Sow, 54, said he's been HIV-positive since 1996 and had been taking anti-retrovirals for the past fours years until he volunteered for this program.

Four weeks later, he said he's gained 30 pounds and feels like a new person.

"I am cured at this moment," he said.

Asked if he had any HIV symptoms, he responded, "No, I don't. As I stand before you I can honestly tell you I have ceased to have any HIV symptoms."

Patient after patient gave similar statements to CNN. But it was difficult to verify the authenticity of their testimony. The government claims to have scientific evidence, but it did not provide any to CNN.

Jammeh refused to speak to CNN for this report.

CNN also sought medical reports of the HIV/AIDS patients to see whether they are indeed on the mend. The material was not provided. The government would also not release the concoction to CNN for testing.

Gambian Health Minister Tamsim Mbowe, a trained physician with multiple medical degrees, defended the so-called herbal cure.

"I can swear, 100 percent, that this herbal medication His Excellency is using is working. It has the potency to treat and cure patients infected with the HIV-virus," he told CNN.

What does he have to say to skeptics?

"I will tell them, as a Western medical trained doctor with 13 years experience meeting different professors, meeting different colleagues of mine, I've seen His Excellency, my leader, coming up with herbal medications that are able to treat and cure patients with HIV-virus, which have been proven within all medical and laboratory parameters."

Health officials worldwide remain doubtful of these claims. Experts also say it's in places like Gambia that the poor and desperate will latch onto anything resembling hope -- and that the government's claims are nothing more than a sick joke.

"For a country's leader to come up with such an outlandish conclusion is not only irresponsible, but also very dangerous, and he should be reprimanded and stopped from proclaiming such nonsense," said Professor Jerry Coovadia of the University of Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa.

[dub]

A dictator who has ruled since 1994, and murders, imprisons and threatens anyone who tries to exercise free speech or opinions contrary to the government.

Pfffft.

The Gambia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Eomer]

Man, it's idiots like this that give credibility to the other idiots in the Western world who just assume every country in Africa is ruled by corrupt morons. Ghana's probably slapping their forehead as they read this.

[Himeo]

If they have AIDS, aren't they going to die anyway? Maybe killing them softly with his lies is the way to go.

[Tuco]

Eomer just wants all Africans to die.

[AngryGerbil]

Originally Posted by Tuco

Eomer just wants all Africans to die.

pls die

[Tuco]

fucking jul 2002er

[Syringed]

Yet another shining example of why sending money to Africa is a complete waste.

[Squeakster]

It's such a reality check every time I realize that there are places in this world where shit like this passes on a national scale. Just that fact that such a complete idiot as this guy gets to lead a nation makes me lose so much confidence in the human race.

[Cascow]

Originally Posted by CabbitCabbit

-- a murky brown concoction of seven herbs and spices served out of a bottle that once contained pancake syrup.

Anyone else have a craving for KFC?

[Taranatar]

HELLO MY GOOD FRIENDS OF THE WONDERFUL COUNTRY OF AMERICA GOD BLESS YOU YES HAPPY UPON YOU MANY BLESSINGS,

ME AND MY BROTHER UMBATA TUMBA HAVE DISCOVERED ASS PIRATE TREASURE IN THE DEEP ANAL CONGO JUNGLE. WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE JESUS BE PRAISED LORD BLESSINGS ANUS GOD THAT WE NEED TO REMOVE THIS MONEY FROM THE CONGO TO YOUR WONDERFUL AMERICA OF PENIS AND WISH TO SHARE THIS MONEY WITH UPON YOU. ALL THAT I REQUIRE IS THE LOCATION OF YOUR COCKNBALLS, IN ORDER TO PILLAGE IT WITH THE MONEY OF CASH INTO YOUR POSSESSION, PRAISE JESUS.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU SOON JESUS BE PRAISED GOD BLESSING JESUS AMERICA BUTTSECKS.






I GUARANTEE IT.

[Lejina Bloodbath]

Originally Posted by Cascow

Anyone else have a craving for KFC?

Yah, when I saw the guy is an ex colonel I thought about the KFC sauce as well.

I'm half expecting to see someone curing cancer with Pepsi at this point.

[brekk]

Originally Posted by Lejina Bloodbath

I'm half expecting to see someone curing cancer with Pepsi at this point.

shows what you know, drinking pepsi increases your chance of stomach cancer by 2.813%, but it also lowers your chance of throat cancer by 4.96%.

[Tuco]

Originally Posted by brekk

shows what you know, drinking pepsi increases your chance of stomach cancer by 2.813%, but it also lowers your chance of throat cancer by 4.96%.

Only because it burns your throat out whenever you drink its acidness.

[dak]

Yeah, because it's like...totally impossible that a compound found in plant life indigenous to where a virus originated could have a inhibitory effect on it's ability to function.

It's almost as stupid as thinking that moldy bread could save hundreds of thousands of lives on battlefields acros...wait, nevermind.

For such a faith based country that believes in angels, the power of prayer and other such bullshit we sure are close minded to medicines that are not synthesized in some industrial lab.