Authorities disown claims of cure for HIV and AIDS in Nigeria

Following the recent claim of the discovery of a herbal drug that could cure HIV and AIDS, the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Thursday said it had no knowledge of such development.

Prof. Isaiah Ibeh, Head of the Department of Microbiology, University of Benin, had on Tuesday announced the development of a new drug that could be a cure for the HIV and AIDS.

But NAFDAC’s Director-General, Dr Paul Orhii, while briefing newsmen in Abuja, said the claim was capable of misleading the public, especially those with the virus. He, however, assured that the agency would carry out a thorough investigation to verify the authenticity or otherwise of the claim.

“There is no known treatment anywhere in the world now; no known cure; there are medicines that can contain HIV and AIDS but there is no known scientifically approved cure for HIV and AIDS.

“I want to categorically tell you, to avoid any doubt, make it abundantly clear to you that NAFDAC completely disassociates itself from the claims for a cure of HIV and AIDS made by Prof. Isaiah Ibeh of the University of Benin.

“The agency wishes to state that this herbal drug, which is claimed to have undergone a series of successful tests has never been presented to NAFDAC for evaluation of efficacy and safety.

“And as you know, we are the agency that has the mandate to make quality pronouncement on drugs that are to be used in Nigeria; we have never evaluated this drug.’’ ·

Orhii recalled that Nigeria had been inundated with similar spurious claims in the past, when some individuals announced cure for HIV and AIDS, hepatitis and diabetes which later turned out to be false after thorough investigation.

He also recalled that in Sept. 2011, the agency arrested the Managing Director of Winners Medical Diagnostics and Research Institute, Mr Jacob Abdullahi, for dealing on expired medicines claimed to be cure for HIV.

Orhii cautioned such people who might want to come up with such claims to desist from it and follow due process of allowing the necessary agency mandated to evaluate the medicines complete its task. He said that the agency would look at its law so as to ensure that adequate penalty to people who come up with such false claim.