AIDS patients would be
offered an herbal cure at a 1,111-bed hospital in Gambia that the president
said on Tuesday he plans to build despite medical concerns the treatment is
dangerous.
President Yahya Jammeh said
in 2007 he had found a remedy of boiled herbs to cure AIDS, stirring anger
among Western medical experts who claimed he was giving false hope to the sick.
"With this project
coming to fruition, we intend to treat 10,000 HIV/AIDS patients every six
months through natural medicine," Jammeh said in his New Year's address,
adding that he expected the 1,111-bed hospital to open in 2015.
The World Health
Organisation and the United Nations have said Jammeh's HIV/AIDS treatment is
alarming mainly because patients are required to cease their anti-retroviral
drugs, making them more prone to infection.
Jammeh said in October that
68 HIV/AIDS patients undergoing his herbal remedy had been cured and
discharged, the seventh batch since the treatments began five years ago.
Other African leaders have
drawn criticism for extolling the power of natural remedies to combat AIDS.
The administration of former
South African President Thabo Mbeki was ridiculed for denying there was a link
between HIV and AIDS while prescribing meaningless treatments such as beet root
instead of internationally proven medicines.
The HIV rate in Gambia is
relatively low compared to other African states, with 2% of the country's
roughly 1.8 million people infected, according to the United Nations.
Jammeh came to power in
Gambia, a sliver of land on Africa's west coast that is popular with
sun-seeking European tourists, in a bloodless military coup in 1994.
He is accused by activists
of human rights abuses during his rule, and most recently drew international
criticism for executing nine death-row inmates by firing squad. (Reuters)
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