ARVs still best for HIV/AIDS
May 08, 2006
THE clients of an Iranian scientist who has been selling a concoction said to cure AIDS are pleading for his release.
THE clients of an Iranian scientist who has been selling a concoction said to cure AIDS are pleading for his release.
Professor Allagholi Elahi was arrested in Kampala last month following months of controversy over his Khomeini drug.
He has been claiming that Khomeini expels HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, from the body. A big dosage of Khomeini costs sh3m. By the time of arrest, he had sold the drug to at least 400 patients since 2000.
The petitioners, who have written to President Museveni, are pleading that Elahi be given an opportunity to explain how his medicine works.
But local medical authorities have already determined that Elahi’s drug is of no therapeutic value. Their advice came after weeks of research and consultation, and should therefore be accepted and enforced.
It is understandable that patients of AIDS, which has no cure, should be eager for one. Indeed, in its deadlier times, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, AIDS patients were often taken for a ride by unscrupulous healers. Ugandans will remember Nanyonga, a woman in Masaka, who got desperate people to eat worthless (and unhygienic) soil potions said to cure AIDS.
But the good news is that HIV/AIDS need not be the death sentence it once was. The development of antiretroviral drugs as the only effective way to combat HIV has come as great and proven relief to patients, elongating their lives by at least a decade. Blitzing the virus with these drugs make it less likely that resistance will be a problem.
Being at the centre of international HIV/AIDS research has given Uganda the inside track in application of ARVs. Highly subsidized, they are available in the health system, and have made a big difference in many people’s lives; especially those who use them in disciplined fashion. Let us stick to the proven drugs.
Ends
Professor Allagholi Elahi was arrested in Kampala last month following months of controversy over his Khomeini drug.
He has been claiming that Khomeini expels HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, from the body. A big dosage of Khomeini costs sh3m. By the time of arrest, he had sold the drug to at least 400 patients since 2000.
The petitioners, who have written to President Museveni, are pleading that Elahi be given an opportunity to explain how his medicine works.
But local medical authorities have already determined that Elahi’s drug is of no therapeutic value. Their advice came after weeks of research and consultation, and should therefore be accepted and enforced.
It is understandable that patients of AIDS, which has no cure, should be eager for one. Indeed, in its deadlier times, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, AIDS patients were often taken for a ride by unscrupulous healers. Ugandans will remember Nanyonga, a woman in Masaka, who got desperate people to eat worthless (and unhygienic) soil potions said to cure AIDS.
But the good news is that HIV/AIDS need not be the death sentence it once was. The development of antiretroviral drugs as the only effective way to combat HIV has come as great and proven relief to patients, elongating their lives by at least a decade. Blitzing the virus with these drugs make it less likely that resistance will be a problem.
Being at the centre of international HIV/AIDS research has given Uganda the inside track in application of ARVs. Highly subsidized, they are available in the health system, and have made a big difference in many people’s lives; especially those who use them in disciplined fashion. Let us stick to the proven drugs.
Ends