Sunday, May 13, 2007

from the "why isn't this on BBC World?" dept.



Cure for HIV/AIDS Found!

That's the top story headline screaming from the news page of GhanaWeb as at 4:24pm Sunday May 12, 2007. What follows is a Ghana News Agency article about the discovery of a cure for HIV/AIDS.

Here's the story...

Kumasi, May 13, GNA - HIV/AIDS victims can heave a huge sigh of relief since there is now a potent herbal medicine which is reported to be capable of totally curing HIV/AIDS.

"Koankro", the herbal mixture prepared by Mr Kamara Agyapong, Director of Peace Herbal Clinic at Ejisu in Ashanti, has been confirmed by the Clinical Analysis Laboratory of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), as capable and potent in curing HIV/AIDS.

This follows the successful trial tests conducted on two HIV/AIDS positive patients who were put on the herbal preparations by Mr Agyapong two years ago. The tests have confirmed that the two patients are now HIV negative.

The test results which were made available to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi indicated that, the two patients have been tested negative of both HIV 1 and 2 viruses.

The results, which were released on May 4, this year, show that, the two male patients, aged 39 and 34 now have no HIV virus in their blood cells.

Their negative status has also been confirmed by further test results from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) laboratory and Medilab, a private medical laboratory in Kumasi.

A team of researchers from the Biochemistry Department of KNUST had been conducting a series of investigations into the efficacy and potency of the "Koankro" herbal mixture for some years now. They had already confirmed the efficacy of the preparation in the management of HIV/AIDS. The team initially confirmed that after three weeks treatment with "Koankro", there was significant improvement in the haemoglobin content, while the blood counts and weight of victims improved. That made Mr Agyapong to undertake further research to come out with additional 16 preparations, which are administered to the patients at different stages of treatment.

Speaking to the GNA on the test results, Mr Agyapong indicated that there were currently about 20 patients who were at various stages of treatment, adding that, the breakthrough in the test results had provided further impetus to the herbal preparations for the treatment of the disease.
- GNA-

Meanwhile, a similar GNA attributed story on MyJoyOnline.com is headlined a little less sensationally:

Cure for HIV/AIDS?

There's also a nice photo of emaciated man labelled "An AIDS patient."

No sign of the story (yet) on GhanaNewsToday.com but that could be because it's Sunday.

Anyway... I find that this story ranks right up there with the claims of Gambia's president to be able to cure HIV/AIDS.

It gives a false sense of hope, and worse, might encourage people to think that they no longer need to protect themselves.

Harrumph!*

*Unless I'm wrong...

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