Rights watch raises concern over President Jammeh's HIV/AIDS "cure"
Afriquenligne
March 5, 2008
Dakar, Senegal - The United Nations and its member states are failing to address serious threats to life and health posed by the promotion of unproven AIDS 'cures' and by counterfeit antiretroviral drugs," a global rights body, Human Rights Watch, stated in a recently released dossier.
In the dossier, titled "Dangerous medicines: Unproven AIDS cures and counterfeit antiretroviral drugs" released 28 February, the rights body named the Gambia and Iran among countries which "deserve particular scrutiny."
"In both countries, officials at the highest levels of government have been dire ctly involved in the promotion of unproven therapies," said Joseph Amon, HIV/AIDS Programmes Director at Human Rights Watch.
"International condemnation of their actions, however, has been absent or muted, " Joseph complained, adding: "fake cures have been promoted since AIDS was first identified".
"In Gambia in February 2007, President Yahya Jammeh claimed to have developed a herbal cure for AIDS that was effective in three days if people taking the treat m ent discontinued taking antiretroviral drugs and refrained from alcohol, caffeine, and sex."
He said since Jammeh's announcement, scant global attention has been paid to the availability of effective AIDS treatments in the tiny West African country.
"According to the President's office, hundreds of people have taken the remedies for HIV/AIDS. Gambian authorities have failed to provide information on the degree to which patients taking the medicine had freely volunteered to do so, and also on independent verification of the health outcomes," Human Rights Watch Director added.
The rights body therefore strongly urged the United Nations to put pressure on c ountries promoting unproven AIDS treatments to "provide complete, accurate infor m ation about effective HIV/AIDS treatment and to correct false and misleading inf o rmation about unproven therapies."
"In the era of expanded antiretroviral treatment programmes, the failure of governments to monitor these false claims and ensure accurate information about life - saving antiretroviral drugs undermines global efforts to fight AIDS."
"Countries are gambling with the lives of people living with HIV by promoting un proven AIDS remedies," said Joseph.
"The UN should condemn this practice and work with governments and civil society groups to ensure that effective AIDS treatment and information about it are provided," he stressed.
"Access to effective medicines is an indispensable part of the right to the high est attainable standard of health. Billions of dollars that are being spent on scaling up antiretroviral treatment will be undermined if governments ignore the threats posed by unproven AIDS treatments and counterfeit drugs."
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