The Gambia: That Claim About Curing HIV/AIDS Revisited

Back to that claim

I found myself discussing a blog I wrote over 6 years ago about a vaunted cure for HIV/AIDS which ended up in our agreeing to disagree on some fundamental facts about what might be the truth.

The Gambia in West Africa cannot be said to have the best of reviews from me and for those who read my blog, it would be evident that I don’t do sentiment, I am more excited by data, incontrovertible evidence, corroborated facts and authoritative sources – my science background demands this every time.

To have had to introduce a Gambian to a blog entitled A Gambian Cure for AIDS or An Epidemic of Stupidity is probably not the most subtle way of making friends but some issues needed to be trashed out.

Maybe he does, maybe

My friend believes his president does have the knowledge, know-how and ability to cure diseases - the African way, that might well be possible, and I will not quibble about that, but it is important to put this assertion through a simple test.

Now, say for example, John Doe having been to his doctor in any hospital in the West had by medical diagnosis been confirmed as having the HIV infection, that will be on the record that he is HIV+ (HIV Positive).

John Doe on hearing of President Yahya Jammeh’s healing abilities for HIV/AIDS amongst other diseases as asthma and whatever else, buys a ticket and flies to the Gambia where according to the original news story, the one-day treatment of the disease cures the person of the ailment, he gets to partake of the healing therapy and is presumably cured – that is good for him.

What is the result?

Assuming John Doe decides not to remain in the Gambia but he returns home where one would think he will visit his doctor to medically confirm that the virus has been completely eradicated from his system, there will be clear indicators from his medical history to prove that he contracted HIV, and now he has been cured.

There are clear medical indicators for the presence of HIV in the body, its progression or decline and this is a matured diagnostic system that should leave any doctor in the West in awe and wonder at first before asking his peers to review the tests and then publicly declaring that his HIV patient has by reason of treatments received in the Gambia been cured. [Going by the comments that littered this blog before I deleted and closed it the comment thread, the healed are ready to waive confidentiality, so there are no privacy concerns.]

There have been functional cures and reports of bone marrow transplants leading to cures that have been in the news, it would be utterly uncharitable and unreasonable of any doctor to have discovered a cure outside the purview of medical scrutiny and remain silent about it.

The International HIV & AIDS charity AVERT has documented a series of views, opinions and discussions on A Cure for AIDS and it clearly does not believe that the Gambia has incontrovertible proof of its claims, neither do I.

Feeling better is NOT enough

My friend suggests many Westerners have been to the Gambia have received treatment and are all feeling better, my concern is why none of these people have considered it necessary to return to their doctors to verify, confirm and ascertain the evidence of their cure, if in the least as a matter of gratitude to the President of Gambia who has brought something that defies Western medical science to the world.

Just because the Gambia is a small country does not mean it cannot produce geniuses who have ideas that border on the miraculous, but what I am not prepared to accept is the idea that anything that has been medically confirmed as present cannot later on be medically confirmed as absent after treatment regardless of whether you are Gambian, African, or from any other place in the world.

Let us agree on this

We must agree that medical scrutiny and peer review is paramount and critical to any claims of cure or that claim is questionable at best and must be challenged to the point of complete repudiation at worst.

I am also ready to review any additional information that comes to light about the cures for HIV/AIDS which pass the muster of tests that determine the presence of the virus before treatment and the eradication of the virus after treatment, and I extend this to include all therapies including faith healing – none are above the need for medical verification without which we must with all reasonableness debunk the claims and label the 'healers' purveyors of snake-oil remedies – charlatans and quacks.

If your doctor discovered your condition, allow your doctor the most basic courtesy of wonder, awe, amazement and incredulity by returning after your treatment, you must never ever stop your medication on anyone’s advice but that of a medically qualified practitioner, hopefully that will be your doctor too.

I have nothing against the Gambia or the person of the President of Gambia with his eccentricities, but the need for proof cannot be excused and for all the good that the Gambia might have for our very sick world, a standard of analysis and verification must exist, for notoriety between you and me, is not the way to get Gambia into the international limelight.

Thought Picnic: How Do They Launder Demons?

You cannot make this up

Pat Robertson the American Televangelist says the darndest things that makes people think he had been quaffing psychedelic drugs in place of breathing air for oxygen.

It is then not surprising that he then attracts even the most unspeakably bizarre questions to his 700 Club show, his responses are sometimes impossible to watch creating a cringe-worthy sense of unease and queasiness that leaves you all so queer.

Recently, he had to answer a question about second-hand clothes being possibly inhabited by demons, of course, the idea was not originally his, but by the time he provided anecdotal evidence and the additional commentary, he as good as said clothes can be the residual habitation of demons and something to the effect that demons can reside in inanimate objects.

Get me a Demons for Dummies manual

Now, I am no expert in demonology or the exegesis of exorcism, nor would I suggest that I fully appreciate the manifestations or fantasy of the paranormal that excites the Pentecostal folk to the point that they handle spiritual matters with unusually physical vigour that a typical WWF fixture will not have as much movement or entertainment value.

However, the problem arises when agnosticism takes the place of disbelief; the seed of the questionable has been sown in a mind that conjures much vivid imagination and imagery.

As I was checking out of my hotel yesterday, I usually leave some of my stuff at the hotel over the weekend which means one has to pack wisely.

Demon reproduction

I use the laundry services of the hotel and so imagine my surprise when it looked like I had another suit in the wardrobe that had returned with my clothes some 3 days before.

Yes, a small-sized Burton’s suit had mistakenly been carted back to me and had dissipated its life amongst my clothes for days unbeknownst to me because my laundry is usually returned to my room when I am out. I just assumed everything was fine.

Back to Pat Robertson’s drug-addled theory of demonology and demon estate management you begin to wonder whose demons are cavorting with other demons and whether those I tolerate have been copulating with those of the stranger’s suit – I can’t go on, but you get the drift.

Some people need to be taken off television with immediate effect, I can’t remember if I said my prayers – over the clothes.

A Gambian Cure for AIDS or An Epidemic of Stupidity

Touch the screen and be healed

When one first saw the music video of Jesus He Knows Me (Video attached) by Genesis, one was not amused in the least, but now, I see the truth and humour in the whole thing, that is what this business of religion has become.

If, at the same time some televangelist made some statement about healing generally incurable diseases whilst many might flock to those tents for a touch of the miraculous, there are some who would view such claims with utter skepticism, I do not blame them, many a time, we’ve all been conned with snake oil remedies.

Beetroot healing

Then Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the Health Minister for South Africa came up with the therapeutic amelioration for HIV/AIDS using garlic and beetroot. It just highlighted how seemingly educated and knowledgeable Africans make a laughing stock of themselves, the Health Minister being a medical doctor by training is supposed to know better.

As if we have not been subject to enough ridicule when it comes to Africa’s handling of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the president of a country that through the unfortunate juxtaposition of geography and biology looks like a phallic symbol in a condom is offering healing remedies for AIDS.

Then he unashamedly declared this delusional fantasy to a group of foreign diplomats. They must have thought the president is aping a stand-up comic, and now his Health Minister corroborates this nonsense by saying the patients are gaining weight and improving physically – they are probably being fed shit – it is unconscionable that leaders can take advantage of their people’s gullibility and ignorance.

Any announcement of this sort would normally have followed the due process of analysis by scientists in a medical, pharmaceutical or epidemiological forum, definitely not a tea-party for diplomats, it does Gambia down.

Secret medicinal lies

President “Quack Doctor” Yahya Jammeh of Gambia also claims he can cure asthma, maybe he really can do all of these things since his technique he is using a secret medicinal herbs which we probably can say do not require the swirl or flick of Harry Potter wand.

I would however only give this man – who in my rush to judgment leaves him no less a charlatan – the benefit of the doubt if an independent panel of scientific minds in HIV/AIDS research and pharmacology peer review these concoctions and certify their efficacy.

Such knowledge and expertise cannot be confined to just one man and his aides when millions are dying around the world, besides, there are ways and means for getting rewarded for offering this lifeline to humanity, if this indeed is the real deal.

Between you and me, this is not the way to get Gambia into the international limelight.