THE MEDIA & HIV/AIDS CURES CLAIMS OF NATURAL HEALTH PRACTITIONERS

April, 2000
Abalaka: Where the Media Went Wrong
By Omololu Falobi*



Dr. Abalaka

The intensive media coverage that has attended Abuja-based Dr. Jeremiah Abalaka's claims to a preventive and 'curative' vaccine for the Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome (AIDS) should interest any student of journalism.

From relative obscurity, Abalaka suddenly became hot news, 'the biggest thing to happen to Nigeria since Wole Soyinka won the Nobel'. In March and April 2000 - which could be described as the peak of the media frenzy on the issue - over a hundred stories were published on the 'Abalaka AIDS cure' saga in the major national newspapers and newsmagazines. The breakdown includes at least 10 cover stories, as many front-page stories, uncountable full-length interviews, feature-length articles, opinion articles and newspaper editorials by almost all the major national dailies.

Vanguard leads the pack with 12 front-page stories (including three lead stories but excluding inside page stories) devoted to the Abalaka story. All the stories were carried in the period under study - March and April 2000. The paper's Health Editor, Mr. Sam Eferaro, wrote all the stories except two. These include banner headlines such as 'Pharmacy Institute Confirms AIDS Cure' (March 20); 'AIDS: Abalaka gets patent on vaccine' and 'FG insists on proof of Abalaka's HIV vaccine'.

Indeed, more than any other major national publication, Vanguard shot Abalaka into national focus. In one interesting weekend, the paper's three titles (Vanguard, Weekend Vanguard and Sunday Vanguard) ran cover stories on the issue for three days consecutively.

Lets examine these stories in more detail to provide an insight into the trends of coverage of this still breaking news.

Vanguard's first story in the period under study was carried on March 20 titled, 'AIDS gets patent on vaccine'. For many readers, this was the story that shored up the doctor's claim to what should be the world's greatest medical breakthrough. Unfortunately, the story was deficient right from its very first sentence.

"The Nigerian Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), has confirmed the efficacy of a curative vaccine for the dreaded HIV, the virus that causes AIDS developed by a Nigerian surgeon, Dr Jeremiah Abalaka", the story read. And it was easy to spot the factual deficiency: Anybody who knows the meaning of a vaccine knows that it can NEVER be curative. A casual check on the dictionary, whether the conventional or specialised medical type, would show that a vaccine can only be preventive. Yet that story was written by a line editor and passed through sub-editors and presumably, the paper's editor!

In just one sentence, the paper had perhaps unwittingly succeeded in perpetuating a fallacy.

One of the major causes of misleading reports in the Nigerian media is that many of our colleagues don't read. The fact is that Abalaka isn't even the only Nigerian, biomedical doctor or not, to make unverified claims to curing AIDS. You only need to browse through cuttings on AIDS in any media library to discover the name of up to a dozen persons who at least in the past two years, have touted their AIDS cure claims to the media and got generous free newspaper space. Admittedly, Abalaka wins by a wide gap the prize of 'Person Who Has Attracted The Greatest Media Coverage For Claiming To Have A Cure For AIDS'.

He himself would be surprised though that when it comes to the African regional finals of the same competition, he wouldn't stand any chance. Renowned Zairean immunologist and head of the Medical Research Centre of the University of Kinshasa, Professor Lurhuma Ziriwabagabo beat him to it as far back as November 1987, only two years after the first AIDS case in Africa was identified.

In 1987, the national radio in Zaire arrested the attention of the medical community in Africa and most of the world when it announced that a major medical breakthrough was to be announced on a given date. Rumour spread that a leading professor of medicine had discovered a cure for AIDS and the government was behind it. It was the beginning of the MM1 saga.

On the appointed date, Ziriwabagabo soberly announced that he had cured many HIV-infected persons with a newly-discovered drug. The drug had shown close to 60 per cent efficacy; other major assets were its affordable costs of about 10 US dollars per treatment of an infected person, its low toxicity as compared to other available treatment drugs, and easy availability of raw materials for its production. The drug was named MM1, after late Zairean President Mobutu Sese-Seko and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. But political considerations often confuse scientific goals. In a very short time, MM1 was found to be no cure for HIV/AIDS.

By the time Lurhuma died years later, thousands of desperate patients had spent time, efforts and money to obtain MM1. Lurhuma had profited from his false claim; Mobutu and former Zaire had acquired a false image of scientific repute, but it was very short lived.

In early 1990, another East African - this time a Kenyan - also beat Abalaka to the coveted prize. A Dr Koech, director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), announced the discovery of Kemron.

The KEMRI claim of a cure drug attracted interest and clients from far and wide. A reputable research institute with trained orthodox medical and scientific specialists could be expected to know what it meant to have a cure for a complicated virus like HIV, or so it seemed. Notwithstanding the suspicion ignited by MM1 and similar other claims including those from western countries, the Kemron drug was used by many hopeful patients and infected persons. Controversy surrounded reports that the health of some of the patients actually improved and as time went on, further research and trials confirmed that Kemron was not a cure and was far from being an effective treatment drug. Today, Kemron is no longer under discussion even as a drug in any reputable setting. The image of KEMRI has been badly damaged ever since. About four years ago, another Kenyan, Prof. Obeng of the School of Medicine at the University of Nairobi announced that he had finally solved the question with a drug called Pearl Omega. The local press would not let Obeng get away easily with this claim, after the local unsavoury experience of Kemron. Many journalists and scientists sought verification of the claim, but very little evidence was forthcoming. Meanwhile, ordinary Kenyans called for official support for the "saviour drug". Afterall, they argued, if the drug were discovered by "white people, they would have supported one of their own." In a short time however, the claim became quite doubtful, although many hopeful patients continued to seek Obeng and his Pearl Omega, paying exorbitant prices.

In 1997, it was the turn of South Africa - an AIDS cure scandal that involved the almighty African National Congress (ANC) and (then) Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki. Just two years after the ANC took over the reins of government from white supremacists, the South African health minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced that two researchers with links to the ANC had discovered a drug called Virodene, which could cure AIDS. Apparently, the inventors of Virodene had bypassed all the research protocols and controls at universities and went directly to the minister, who presented the researchers and their claims to a cabinet meeting, and they were hailed for their "discovery." Mbeki went on television, personally endorsing the drug. Further research by South African scientists in South African medical laboratories showed that Virodene was made up of industrial solvents which have no medical value whatsoever and in fact, is harmful to people. Thabo Mbeki and the ANC were forced to tuck in their tails between their legs.

Does Abalaka have a cure for AIDS? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. One thing is certain though: journalists are not scientists and are, either by training or constitutional duty, not the competent professionals to assess when a drug is a cure for AIDS and when it is not. Truly, we have a duty to inform, but we have an even greater duty not to mislead. By reporting an individual's claims to cure AIDS when he has not even undertaken to collaborate with authorities who, whether he likes it or not, are the only ones who can make him acceptable to the international community, Abalaka is only working against himself.

Anyone who discovers a genuine cure for AIDS is guaranteed a Nobel Prize for Medicine, on a plate of gold. A thousand and one influenced media reports and hundreds of endorsements by army chiefs (who themselves are no scientists and lack the competence to differentiate between paracetamol and paramol) won't take the place of the international jury that determines a Nobel laureate.

Media announcements are not a substitute for scientific research. If, in the absence of independent verification, journalists cannot pay for, or on their own, conduct a scientific research to validate Abalaka's claim (like The Guardian did in 1998 with the Ogbolo story), then it is very unfair and dishonest on our part to expect our readers who themselves are not capable of assessing the import of medical or scientific discoveries, to have to decide the authenticity of the claim.

Abalaka himself has not helped his case by continuously blowing hot and cold over what kind of treatment he has actually developed: A cure for AIDS? A treatment for HIV-related infections? A vaccine to prevent AIDS? The media has failed to differentiate between these completely dissimilar notions.

We have also failed to point out many of the ridiculous statements made by Abalaka in his frantic bid to get ministry's endorsement. He once challenged the ministry to a public demonstration which he said would be a fool -proof way to determine the veracity of his claims.

"I've thrown a challenge to the NMA (the Nigerian Medical Association) and the ministry of health. Just arrange a public forum, you journalists can arrange it. Identify a person with HIV, I'll take his blood and give it to myself. If I don't get HIV, it means this is a preventive vaccine against HIV. It's easy"

In another instance, he derided the health ministry and medical associations' insistence that he subjects his treatment to stringent scientific scrutiny and procedure by comparing his 'vaccines' to Coca-Cola: "People who drink Coca-Cola, they are not interested in what it is made up of but whether it will cure their thirst or not"

According to Abalaka, the interest of the health authorities "should be the effects of the HIV vaccine, not how they were made." He has also said he would be interested only in tests to ascertain the safety and efficacy of his treatment, rather than the formula.

Abalaka would do well to follow the example of Colonel Ovadje of the Nigerian Army who did not shout discrimination and blue murder before he won international recognition on EAT-SET, the blood transfusion technique that he has developed. Thank God Abalaka is neither Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba; otherwise he would have had some grounds to claim marginalisation. He is also thankfully not a traditional healer, so he can't complain of envy by superior-feeling medical doctors.

So just who is after Abalaka?

By Abalaka's own admission, he receives between 17 and 90 patients per day at his Abuja clinic, each of whom pays at least 84,000 naira for four doses of his 'vaccine' (see The Guardian, 8 January 2000 and This Day, 1 April 2000). If we take this number of patients as reflecting attendance at his clinic over only the last two months, Abalaka must be rolling in millions of naira by now. If in the event of his claims to a cure are found to be unsubstantiated, he wouldn't need to worry since he would have made a very good return on investment - at the expense of gullible journalists and members of the public.

By then, like ANC and Mbeki in South Africa, like Professor Obeng and Dr Koech in Kenya, and like Professor Lurhuma in the former Zaire, we would have to tuck our tails between our legs, and grope around for excuses. Only that the public won't forgive us, and the blood of the faceless, desperate people living with AIDS who sold their all for a drug that has not been proved genuine, will be on our heads.

1. Nigerians Claiming Cure for HIV/AIDS Of recent, some Nigerian medical and traditional healers have claimed to have cure for HIV/AIDS. The following is a short profile of a few of these people:

1. Jeremiah Ojonemi Alabi ABALAKA, 51, is a 1972 medical graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Northern Nigeria. Born 4thDecember 1948 in Ajiyolo Aboko-Oche, Dekina Local Government of Kogi State, (Middle belt) Nigeria, Abalaka obtained a post-graduate certificate in immunology from Nigeria's premier teaching hospital the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria and is the proprietor and Chief Medical Director of Medicrest Specialist (private) Hospital in Gwagwalada, a satellite town of Abuja. He is said to receive 17 to 90 patients daily in his hospital.

He claims variously to have a patented vaccine for the prevention and cure of HIV. According to him, he processes the vaccine from blood obtained from infected patients. He does not add any herbs or chemicals to the "vaccine". In his words, his processed HIV "vaccine" has a yellow colour and it takes him more than 2 hours to work on each sample of blood to obtain the vaccine. This is so because he processes his vaccines manually he said. Abalaka claims that a dose of his vaccine costs about N21, 000 per ml. (approx. US$ 250) and after taking up to four doses depending on the duration of infection, an infected patient will be completely cured of HIV. Rhetorically, he asked:

"What do I mean by cure?" He answered the question himself saying, "It is when you are reverted to anti-HIV antibody negative status and become P24 sero-negative". Abalaka has achieved celebrity status of sorts in some States of Nigeria for his claims. He has so far refused to disclose how he prepares his vaccine saying that what matters most is the efficacy of his vaccine against HIV/AIDS. The Chief Medical Laboratory Scientist at Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital near Abuja agrees. Abalaka claims to have vaccinated himself with his HIV vaccine to prevent him from contacting the disease at work.

Source: The Guardian, 8 January 2000, p. 24-25. By Seyi Odewale, and This Day, 1 April 2000, p. 12 ð 15. By Samuel Ajayi

2. Edmund OKWORI is another Nigerian physician claiming to have found a cure for HIV/AIDS. He is a Consultant Microbiologist at the General Hospital, Oturkpo, Benue State, (Middle belt) Nigeria. According to a recent sentinel study of HIV/AIDS conducted for the Federal Ministry of Health, Benue State has the highest prevalence rate (21%) for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Okwori is a 1986 medical graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Northern Nigeria. He worked for several years at the Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital as a medical microbiologist where he was a colleague of Dr. Abalaka.

When asked how he discovered his cure, Okwori said the answer was simple. "It was through divine revelation," he said. He went on: "I searched for a cure, I am a catholic. I used to say five rosary a day, but I increased this to fifteen. I was attending mass everyday, receiving Holy Communion and putting everything before God. For more than a year, I was doing this until one day when I was directed by the spirit to go to the Bible, that what I wanted was in the Bible. I thought it was a joke", he went on further to say. "I started reading from Genesis until I got to Leviticus 26 and I discovered the origin of HIV. It is a punishment from God for our disobedience. It is stated around verse 14 or so, that the punishment for disobedience is that God would send to the Israelites an incurable disease, which would waste them away. I then said this must be the problem. I continued to read. Every morning I go to mass, say my rosary until I got to the book of Numbers. In the book of Numbers, there is a place where Israelites, because of their stubbornness and disobedience spoke against God and Moses. God then sent snakes to deal with them and they were dying. They discovered that they have offended God and Moses and so they apologised and repented. God, being very loving, very patient and lenient forgave them and instructed Moses to go and make a metal snake and hang it. Anybody that was bitten by snake and looked at the metal snake will be saved and cured. So when I reached that point, the spirit of God now told me that I have got my answer for HIV/AIDS". Thus, Okwori arrived at his formula for the cure of HIV/AIDS.

When pressed as to how his formula is turned into a vaccine, he declined to disclose his trade secret, saying, "It is through a methodology I cannot disclose now".

Does Okwori's drug really work? "Yes" he says, emphasising that he has already established that. "I have a cure for HIV infection. I am now undertaking trials for AIDS with those who have come with advanced cases. I am getting some positive results but it is very tasking, be-cause you have to spend a lot of time and a lot of money too". "I am sure I can clear the HIV infection from the body within four to six weeks" says Okwori. He sees no less than 6 HIV/AIDS patients daily and he went further to say that at least 15 ð 20 people test positive for HIV every week at the General Hospital, Oturkpo where he works.

Source: The Guardian on Saturday, 18 March 2000. p. 18 -19. By Tunji Bolaji

3. Onjefu ODEH, 65, a Nigerian herbalist, has also announced his own discovery for HIV/AIDS. He lives in Oturkpo-Icho village. By Odeh's account, he has cured over 25 persons infected with HIV/AIDS. He claimed to have been working for seven years and that it took him two years to certify the curative effect of his herbs on AIDS. According to him, his first cure or patient was a friend of his, who came home pale, coughing, emaciated and looking very sickly. "I told him to collect roots of spear grass. He did, prepared the herb and took it for three months with his wife and was cured", he said. Odeh disclosed that he could immunise against HIV/AIDS with 12 different batches of herbs.

Source: The Guardian on Saturday, 18 March 2000. p. 19. By Tunji Bolaji.

4. Felix I.O.E. AMANYA is another Nigerian claiming to have a cure for HIV/AIDS. He is an alternative medical practitioner. He recently appealed to the Federal Government to provide him with N20 billion (about US$ 200 million) to enable him build a hospital complex where he could continue to cure the dreaded disease. Amanya claims to have been trained in China in traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacology. He identified his wonder drug for AIDS as "Kasa Boom Boom". The drug according to him "could restore 'TD4' lymphocyte count in peripheral blood to normal level within three weeks of being administered on a patient". He is of the view that his drug was better than the Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) that is currently used in the management of HIV/AIDS throughout the world. Amanya claimed that Federal authorities snubbed him recently when he requested for AIDS patients to treated by him in confirmation that his drug works. He added that the authorities instead asked him to submit his drug to them for laboratory testing and if confirmed to be useful as a cure for AIDS, he would be paid N150, 000 (about US$ 1,500) and the drug will be owned by the Federal Government.

Source: The Punch. 8 January 2000. P.11, Busola Joel.

5. Jacob ABDULLAHI is yet another Nigerian claiming to have a cure for HIV/AIDS. Like Abalaka, he is from Kogi State (Middle belt) Nigeria. He is a staff of the Federal School of Medical Laboratory Technology in Kogi State. He claims to have cured about 600 HIV/AIDS patients between 1998 to date. His drug extracted from an undisclosed dried plant using hot water achieved this feat. The drug has been code named "Winnie cure". According to Abdullahi, patients with confirmed cases of HIV/AIDS took the drug for only five weeks and were cleared of all traces of the disease. He further affirmed that the plants used for his drug are available in Nigeria during the raining season. He stated that he has received a patent for his drug.

Source: The Punch. 2 March2000. p. 5, By Garba Yedimakudon

Notwithstanding these diverse claims, the Federal Government has warned all Nigerians to ignore all recent claims of AIDS cure advising all HIV/AIDS patients to always report at government hospitals for testing and treatment.

*Omololu Falobi is Project Director of Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria. Email: omololuf@micro.com.ng

SOURCE: JOURNALISTS AGAINST AIDS ARTICLE (Nigeria-aids.org)