Gambian president can cure AIDS; It's Magic!!

Ok, the witch doctor will see you now. NEXT!

Gambia's Aids 'Miracle'
Updated: 09:15, Tuesday February 20, 2007

The United Nations has warned of dangerous consequences after the leader of a tiny West African country declared he can cure Aids.

The President of The Gambia says his herbal remedy can kill HIV in his patients' blood.

Sky's Africa correspondent Emma Hurd went to meet him and has this exclusive report:

Dressed from head to toe in sparkling white robes, President Yahya Jammeh, leans over his latest patient and massages a herbal ointment into his chest.

The man is HIV positive, but after a few sessions of this treatment: a rub down with the cream, a splash on the face with another potion and a drink of a murky looking liquid, the President claims he'll be cured.

He's already treated dozens of his people with his traditional medicine, succeeding, he says, where modern medical science has failed.

Sceptics are not welcome.

"Who do I have to convince?" he demanded, jabbing his finger towards me.

"The World?" I suggested.

"I do not have to convince anybody. I can cure Aids and I will not explain it to those who don't want to understand."

The only proof we were shown were photocopied laboratory results which appear to show that some of his patients now have "undetectable" levels of HIV in their blood.

No evidence was provided to show they were HIV positive before the treatment.

We asked for independent tests, which were refused along with a request to take samples of the secret herbal medicines.

"Not in a million years," the President told me.

We were at least permitted to speak to one of his patients, Ousman Sowe, a university lecturer.

"I believe I am cured," he said. "I believe that I am now HIV negative." He could offer no proof.

This 'cure' is sponsored by The Gambia's Department of Health.

The President's patients are kept on special wards in the nation's hospitals and the Health Minister selects suitable candidates for treatment.

Fatou Sanyang arrived with her two-year-old son.

The child, like her, is HIV positive, she told me, and she wants the President to heal them both.

The Minister, Dr Tamsir Mbowe, did not think that would be a problem.

"One hundred per cent the President can cure everyone. It is absolutely medically proven," he said.

Despite the lack of evidence, there are few in the Gambia who dare doubt this 'miracle'.

The President controls the media and the only message his people are hearing is that the treatment works, and patients are now queuing up outside his door.

President Jammeh cures Aids on Thursdays and Asthma on Saturdays, the rest of the time he runs the country he's ruled for 12 years.

It's a place which attracts 80,000 British tourists every year, and was until recently considered progressive in its approach to Aids.

Organisations which run orthodox programmes to combat the spread of the virus now fear all of their work is being undone.

Fadzai Gwarazimba, the co-ordinator for the UN in The Gambia, told me: "If people start to believe there is a cure then they will start to engage in risky behaviour and that could mean even more of a problem with Aids in this continent."

Africa is crying out for leaders who will take Aids seriously, but President Jammeh seems to have joined those who believe it's a conspiracy cooked up by the drugs companies of the West.

We watched as he finished treating a young woman, who lay passively on a bed while she was covered in ointment until her black skin shone.

In a few weeks she, along with the latest batch of 29 patients, will finish her treatment.

What is chilling is that they will all, most likely, still be HIV positive - but they will be convinced they can live life as if they are cured.