Controversy mars search for Aids cure in Africa
Even as scientists worldwide battle to come up with a cure for the Aids pandemic, in Kenya and the rest of Africa, the search for a cure has been mired in controversy. It has been a world of pseudo-science and money mania, in which various quacks and charlatans have come up with all manner of concoctions, which they claim can cure Aids. In Kenya, for instance, lack a clear government policy to guide research on HIV/Aids has partly contributed to this scenario.
Kenya’s Prof Arthur Obel leads the list of controversial scientists who have shocked the world with their claims on HIV/Aids cure. In 1995, Prof Obel came up with Pearl Omega, a wonder drug, which he claimed, was derived from a naturally occurring and much cheaper protease inhibitor. (The development of protease inhibitors in the mid 1990s was seen as a major breakthrough in the search of Aids drugs).
Despite grandiose claims about the effectiveness of his drug (including claims that seven out of 32 of his HIV-positive patients who took Pearl Omega reverted to HIV-negative after an 18-month trial), Obel could not come up with credible data from alleged clinical trials and flatly refused the health ministry’s demand that he hand over samples of his product for regulated clinical trials. Obel instead chose to shelter behind some strange protection he was enjoying directly from the Office of the President, which, by-passing the relevant authorities, had apparently appointed him to the non-existent post of Chief Government Scientist and even funded the establishment of a heavily guarded production facility for Pearl Omega at the Kenya National Trading Corporation sheds at Nairobi’s industrial area.
But when push came to shove, Obel had to beat a hasty retreat. Stung by the criticism over Pearl Omega, Obel, held a public lecture at the University of Nairobi’s School of Medicine to clear up the controversy. However, instead of trumpeting Pearl Omega as the new panacea, Obel accused the media of "putting words in people's mouths" and then went ahead to admit that there is no known cure for AIDS. Pearl Omega, he said, controls only the symptoms of the disease. "My role is to alleviate the suffering of AIDS patients and to prolong their lives," he told a packed conference hall, made up mainly of medical students and researchers. "In medicine," he said, "You don't aim to eradicate high blood pressure, asthma or diabetes. You just control them. And that's exactly what Pearl Omega is doing."
Despite putting up a spirited defence, the Pharmacy and Poisons Board went ahead and banned the manufacture and administration of Obel’s drug arguing that: “Prof. Obel’s behaviour has been unorthodox and against all protocol and etiquette in a field where the rules are clear -cut and heterodox procedure is not expected of researchers.”
One of the unorthodox behaviours upon which Prof. Obel was dismissed was discussing his medical findings in newspapers instead of academic journals and conferences both locally and internationally where experts could thoroughly vet his claims. To crown this, he refused completely to disclose Pearl Omega’s formula and its beneficiaries as required by the government
This was the same Obel—a highly qualified immunologist, who in 1990 teamed up with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) director Dr Davy Koech to launch the heavily-publicised Kemron, which at the time was touted as the most dramatic breakthrough in Aids drugs anywhere in the world. Launched at a glittering ceremony presided over by none other than then president Daniel arap Moi, Kemron—an orally administered interferon—soon turned out to be a dud cheque. Not to mention the fact that it was not developed by the duo at Kemri as had been claimed all along, with the institute merely serving as a center for clinical trials whose reported results were subsequently discredited.
Controversy over Obel’s Pearl Omega mirrors a similar scenario in 1996 when Dr Basil Wainwright (alias Dr Stone), came up with the so-called Polyatomic Apheresis (Oxygen therapy), which involved passing rays of atmospheric oxygen through a patient’s body. Dr Wainwright claimed this could cure Cancer, HIV/Aids and a host of other diseases. Kenyans have not forgotten the debate that ensued soon after Dr Wainwright was cleared to conduct his research on human beings by the then Director of Medical Services (DMS) Dr James Mwanzia.
In a July 1996 letter to Dr Wainwright, Dr Mwanzia said in part: “The setting up of a Polyatomic Apheresis center in Nairobi is greatly appreciated by the government of the Republic of Kenya. I would like to assure you of continued government support in assisting our fight against the many new, emerging and re-emerging diseases like HIV/Aids, Yellow fever, etc”. But the Kenya Medical Association and the Medical Practitioners and Dentists’ Board were up in arms. They were totally opposed to the administration of Polyatomic Apheresis to patients and wrote to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which in turn wrote to the government of Kenya cautioning it that Polyatomic Apheresis was not medically approved in the US (where Dr. Wainwright was before coming to Kenya) for treatment of HIV/AIDS and that Dr. Wainwright was a fugitive on probation violation.
Consequently, about a year later in 1997, Dr. Wainwright was banned from administering polyatomic apheresis anywhere in Kenya. Dr. Mwanzia banned the administration of the therapy, noting that the government had information that Dr. Wainwright was a conman. But that was after the fugitive had played hide and seek with the government, putting up clinics in the plush suburbs of Nairobi and Mombasa.
Dr. Wainwright saw the hand of politics and corruption in the ban of his treatment. He argued that it is the same Director of Medical Services who had allowed the administration of polyatomic apheresis who was then banning it hardly a year later. In both the Pearl Omega and Polyatomic Apheresis saga, lack of clear government policy to guide medical research in HIV/AIDS and its enforcement was seen as an impediment in the fight against the pandemic. For instance, a decision of granting Dr. Wainwright permission to carry out research on human beings and stopping it within a year on the pretext that he was not a medical doctor and that he was a fugitive and, therefore, not allowed to treat people sounded self-defeating.
But such controversies have not been limited to Kenya. In neighbouring Uganda, Elahi International Initiatives (EII)—an Iranian-founded institution—has been playing cat and mouse with the government and continues to administer Aids, TB and cancer herbal medicines to patients despite a ban by the health ministry. EII, based in Kampala, is registered with the Uganda herbalists association but the medical fraternity has continued to cast doubts over the efficacy of its drugs.
Besides the foregoing controversy, there have been allegations of cure from traditional medicine and spiritual power. By their nature, these claims have been abstract with no scientific backup. In Kenya, herbalists have announced many claims of HIV/Aids cure, but the most widely known is that made by Dr. S.K. Maingi. He claimed to have completed research on the drug he calls Blue Computer Drug (BCD) that is able to treat among other diseases HIV/Aids, cancer and diabetes. According to him, patients take the drug for only for a week and they are cured.
Similarly, there have been claims of HIV/AIDS cure by spiritual power across the continent. The most publicised in Kenya is the 1996 open air healing mass at the Holy Ghost Catholic Cathedral in Mombasa. Many people claimed to have been cured by prayers from Sr. Brioge McKenna, a Catholic nun believed to have powers to cure Aids patients. But the most recent claim is that of self-proclaimed prophetess Lucy Nduta, who was charged in court with fleecing desperate Aids patients of money, claiming they would be cured through prayer.
Claims such as these are not unique to Kenya alone but are found across Africa. For instance, Nigeria has quite a number of these claims including those made by people like Dr. Paul Amanya and Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua. Dr. Amanya who claims to be a holder of Ph.D. degrees in traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacology from Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology claims to cure HIV/AIDS by his drug Kasa boom boom. He strongly believes that the jinx about AIDS has been broken except in the minds of those benefiting from huge grants for phoney researches. This is the same case with Prophet Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Ikotun-Egbe who claims to cure HIV/AIDS patients by word of prayer.
With gullible Aids patients desperate to improve their health, Africa may not see the last of quacks and charlatans who are keen to exploit an already sad scenario.