AIDS groups condemn Gambian president's 'miracle cure'
Fri Mar 23, 4:24 PM
DAKAR (AFP) - African campaign groups on Friday condemned Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's "miracle" treatment for HIV/AIDS, saying it had no scientific basis and that giving it to patients violated their rights.
Members of the African Community Platform on HIV/AIDS said they were "greatly concerned" by the remedy, which is based on medicinal plants and a Koranic verse, and according to Jammeh can cure the disease within days.
The president announced his discovery in January, and by the end of the month ten HIV-positive patients had enrolled to receive the treatment, a statement from the umbrella organisation said.
All participants were ordered to give up their antiretroviral drugs, it noted.
The umbrella group warned the treatment "does not respect scientific or ethnical norms and infringes on the patients' human rights" and said they were "greatly concerned by this treatment and its consequences."
It called on Jemmah to openly discuss the issue and urged the Gambian authorities to allow the treatment to be studied by international experts "to put to an end the confusion surrounding it."
In February, UN envoy Fadzai Gwaradzimba was expelled from Gambia after expressing doubts over Jammeh's miracle cure, suggesting it couldlead to irresponsible sexual behaviour.
The African Community Platform is made up of the African Council of AIDS Service Organisations (Africaso), the Society for Women Against Aids in Africa (SWAA) and the African Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAP).
Africaso was set up in 1991 to fight the spread of the disease across Africa, according to the statement.
The Swaa, which was set up in 1988, aims to protect women in particular from it and the NAP, created in 1993 promotes the rights of all those infected.
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