Gambian President Yahya Jammeh claims he has cured 68 patients infected with HIV and AIDS through a secret concoction of boiled herbs. In 2007, Jammeh announced that he had found a natural remedy to cure AIDS, leading many experts in Western medicine to accuse him of giving false hope to the sick.
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.
The president said the cured group was the seventh batch of HIV/AIDS patients undergoing his herbal remedy to have been discharged since the treatments began five years ago.
“Who am I to expect that everybody would praise me,” Jammeh said in a state television broadcast Sunday night. “Just as the Prophet Mohammed prevailed and established Islam (…)I also prevailed to cure HIV/AIDS to the point that 68 are being discharged today.”
Such humility.
Jammeh came to power in the small West African country through a bloodless military coup in 1994 and has since been criticized for numerous human rights abuses. In 2008 he said he would “cut off the head” of any gay person discovered in Gambia, where homosexuality is illegal.
According to the United Nations, the HIV rate in Gambia is relatively low compared to other African nations, with only 2 percent of the country infected. Call us skeptical…but we think Jammeh’s “cure” is completely unrelated.
Sean305
Not the brightest sparks seem to rise in African governments.
2eo
Bless, this halfwit thinks he’s a leader.
Stache99
I think it’s so cute when an evil thug dictator likes to play president. Can’t wait for him to be overthrown by the next henchman.
jwrappaport
Sounds a lot like the anti-vac nuts who think vaccines cause autism and drinking carrot juice will cure pancreatic cancer.
sfbeast
next he’s going to tell us about his herbal mixture that turns black people white
MrEguy
@jwrappaport: That’s an irrelevant straw-man comparison.
Adam
@MrEguy: I believe you mean straw-man argument and it’s neither a straw-man argument not irrelevant. It’s EXACTLY like anti-vac-ers nuttiness. I’m sure you are very offended by any refutation of holistic/natural/voodoo you deign to call “medicine” but the truth is that there is real medicine, which as been proven to work and then there’s everything else.
jwrappaport
@MrEguy: It would behoove you to actually learn your logical fallacies. It is neither a straw-man argument nor is it a non-sequitur, as the two subjects of comparison are vulnerable to an identical criticism: favoring superstition to evidence-based medicine that is subjected to peer review. It could not be more clear or on-point.
With respect to their treatment of medicine, this clown is no different from Steve Jobs, who eschewed removal of his highly operable islet cell tumor in the hopes that his new veganism, acupuncture, and herbal remedies would cure him. Needless to say, not even the mighty Steve Jobs could alter the basic pathophysiologic processes that lead to his untimely demise.
To paraphrase Richard Feynman, if you don’t like this universe and its physical principles, you’re welcome to find another one.
Adam
@jwrappaport: Millions die of AIDS in Africa because of this woo. Meanwhile, the Northern White Rhino is hunted to near extinction for equally ineffective Chinese medicine. And Americans STILL can’t understand why it is OK to buy sugar pills and magnet bracelets. Americans STILL can’t see why the nonsense that they allow KILLS those less fortunate. We are just rich enough to afford placebos. Africans are far less fortunate. Ah the pity of it all.
Natural Anthony
Steve Jobs was taking herbal remedies? For how long? Maybe for him, it was just far too late…
2eo
@Natural Anthony: No, he ignored medical advice when his cancer was completely treatable and died because homeopathic medicine is a sham perpetuated by those who revel in suffering.