Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has discharged 23 HIV/AIDS patients who had undergone treatment from him in his native village of ‘Kanilai’, situated some 120km southeast of Banjul, the capital, government sources confirmed Tuesday.
At a ceremony held to discharge the patients who have been declared “cured”, Jammeh advised the men and women to be on guard against re-infection.
“To be cleared of the virus does not mean that one is immuned, so you have to take care of yourselves,” he charged.
The Gambian leader also lamented the lack of enough resources as a key factor preventing many other patients from accessing his treatment programme.
“I wish I can treat 5,000 patients a month, but it is not possible, because the facility is not there to accommodate all of you; and secondly, it is very, very e xpensive,” he added.
Controversy
The Gambian leader early 2007 sparked a big controversy when he claimed to have "discovered a cure for HIV/AIDS" then later, infertility, among others. He says he has been treating people suffering from the HIV virus, diabetes and other ailments.
He uses African traditional herbs and other non-scientific means in his treatment programme which he and his supporters believe really work. But conventional medical practitioners and scientists think President Jammeh is only wasting the time of patients because his so-called cure is not effective.
