I’m not sure what is more depressing, the fact that the President of Gambia would claim to have the recipe to a potion that cures AIDS, or the fact that people believe him:
(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.
Yea, a dream.
March 16th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
I hope they come up with a real cure for this AIDS soon. I just did a blog over on Highbrid Nation about the African President giving his people a “cure” for AIDS if any of you care to read it. Its a sad situation that I hope ends soon.
March 19th, 2007 at 8:40 am
I ordinarily wouldn’t put much weight in such a claim, however, my father was a PhD in veterinary pharmacology, specializing in plants and their affects on animals, and was also interested in herbal remedies and their effects (most drugs are initially plant based). My father died over a year ago. My sister, has need for a drug that she cannot take orally, due to a conflict with another medication she takes. My sister had a dream in which my father appeared to her, told her how to crush the drug she needed and put it in a balm to apply to her wrists and arms. My sister follwed his instruction and within days her symptoms went away completely.
So, you can dismiss a “dream from the ancestors”, or you can say, well, perhaps this could be tested to see how it is affecting Aids patients. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to put it to some scrutiny. Having a few people possibly be mislead is a small price for the possibility of an effective treatment being found. I don’t think most people in the world will buy in to it until they are shown some proof.
Again, many drug are derived from herbal sources. Lets have an open mind, but not without some testing and proof.