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NAC frowns at HIV/Aids cure adverts

National Aids Commission (NAC) has expressed reservations at the proliferation of advertisements placed in the local media by herbalists claiming to cure HIV and Aids.

Kalomba: Discovery of Aids was a science
Kalomba: Discovery of Aids was a science

NAC acting executive director Davie Kalomba, speaking Tuesday in Lilongwe on the sidelines of an information sharing conference about the Malawi National HIV Prevention Strategy to span from 2015 to 2020, said it is wrong to make such adverts as, he said, they are mostly unfounded because the said concoctions have not been scientifically proven to validate their claimed curative values.

He said: “Discovery of HIV and Aids was a science, so there has to be an evidence scientifically to prove that whatever concoction someone has is able to cure Aids. If one is sure that their medicine is able to cure HIV and Aids, why not subject the same to the scientific test?”

Kalomba’s sentiments come at a time when the media—both print and electronic—is awash with adverts claiming different concoctions, mostly herbal, to have powers that can cure one of the HIV.

However, Kalomba said the health system at the moment is toothless to address this challenge because the Public Health Act is silent on the matter.

Said the acting NAC boss: “At [the University of Malawi’s] Chancellor College there is a Chemistry Department to which, through National Commission for Science and Technology, we [NAC] have provided funding to be conducting such tests on medicines.

“We also know that there are some plants which have medicinal values which can cure opportunistic diseases. So, we need to have a deeper understanding of their chemical composition through the same programme.”

During the conference, information was shared about the Malawi National HIV Prevention Strategy developed in support of the achievement of National Strategic Plan for HIV and Aids’ambitious 90-90-90.

The 90-90-90 agenda seeks to see to it that 90 percent of people living with HIV and Aids know their status, 90 percent of those who know that they are HIV-positive are initiated on anti-etroviral therapy (ART) and that 90 percent of patients on ART are ‘virully suppressed’.

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One Comment

  1. I have always wondered why a responsible govt wouldn’t crack down on these bogus adverts which exploit desperate people trying to stay alive. It ought to wake up from its deep slumber .

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