Dr Agbalaka's Aids' Cure'!!!

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Friday, April 21, 2000 to French to Spanish to German to Italian to Portuguese  Dr Kelechi Ogbuehi  [email protected]

AIDS - Dr Agbalaka�s �Cure� It is rather curious that some Nigerian medical practitioners are heeding the absolutely preposterous claims of an AIDS cure when the necessary steps to elucidate the process of the cure have not been set forth. An African Cure for AIDS In the current scheme of world events where Africans are potrayed as laggards, it is not suprising that Africans are badly seeking a success story emanating from within Africa�s borders, which is uniquely African in concept, style and predisposition. A number of proponents for an African cure for AIDS � most notably Frank Olizeh � have lamented that Dr Agbalaka�s claims have not seriously been heeded because he is African. Perhaps so. One cannot pontificate concerning the values of other African nations, but the Nigerian social attitude does not nearly convey the level of discipline necessary to persecute the nemesis of the AIDS virus. And this attitude is fundamental in assessing a claim such as that made by Dr Agbalaka, who is a medic practicing in Nigeria. The HIV Epidemic A brief history GOLDEN NUGGET ...the perspective in which an unqualified, unverified propounded AIDS cure should be pondered, is one where Nigerians become even more complacent about the HIV epidemic, and wonder what all the fuss was about anyway. This about a disease that can, and probably will, devastate their lives (or the lives of people close to them) without even a snippet of compunction or passing thought. The AIDS-causing viruses were isolated in 1983 and 1984 by Dr Luc Montagnier in Paris France (HIV), and Dr Robert Gallo in Maryland USA (HTLV), respectively. AIDS was initially identified as �gay flu� probably as a result of the high incidence of pneumocystis carinii, which was one of the biggest killers of AIDS patients. The first international conference on AIDS was held in Atlanta in April, 1995. The Food & Drug administration in the US approves the use of the drug Zidovudine (AZT) as the first AIDS drug in 1987. In October 1987, US scientists begin initial tests of AIDS vaccines on infected volunteers. In October 1991, the WHO estimates the worldwide HIV prevalence at 10 million. In July 1992, the first published reports - of a combination-drug therapy for AIDS - were released. In April 1993, a European study, reports that the practice of using AZT to treat AIDS patients long before symptoms develop, had no obvious benefits. By 1996, the WHO reported that the worldwide HIV prevalence had exceeded 30 million. Of this number, a staggering 63% were denizens of sub-Saharan Africa, a region where the spread of the HIV virus still rages virtually unchecked due essentially to: ignorance, denial, and social culture. The three regions with the highest incidence of new HIV cases from 1992 � 1998 were, in descending order: East Asia and the Pacific South & Southeast Asia Central & Eastern Europe and Central Asia It is however noteworthy that the total HIV prevalence in these regions is much less than in sub-Saharan Africa. The HIV Life Cycle and Its Exploitable Weak-Links The AIDS virus infects macrophages (or T-cells), which are part of the human immune system. When the HIV virus comes into contact with a T-cell, it binds to a portion of that cell known as CD4. Once inside the cell, an enzyme called reverse transcriptase converts the RNA of the virus to DNA (the basic genetic building block of any cell). At this stage, the viral cycle lends itself to disruption. Drugs such as AZT and 3TC can meddle with and interrupt this early stage of viral reproduction. Once the viral DNA has been manufactured, it is mixed with human (T-cell) DNA by an enzyme called integrase. This is the second stage at which the viral cycle can be upset using drugs known as integrase inhibitors. Such drugs are still undergoing trials. With the viral DNA now part of the T-cell DNA, the virus now instructs the T-cell to produce more viral RNA and proteins. Enzymes known as proteases then cut these long strands of viral proteins into much shorter ones that can be incorporated into numerous newly formed viral cells. At this point in the viral cycle, protease inhibitors can be used to disrupt the process. It is worthy of note that scientists have discovered that through this cycle, the HIV virus produces billions (not millions) of copies of itself every single day, since infection of the patient. DISCUSSION In the light of the steps detailed above, any claims for an AIDS cure, should first stipulate what aspect of the viral cycle is being inhibited. Furthermore, such a cure must do much more than remove the HIV from the patient�s bloodstream (as has been claimed for Dr Agbalaka�s cure). It must also flush the virus out from its million and one hiding places - as far flung as the brain, the spinal fluid, the lymph nodes, and the male testes. It is also noteworthy that drug combinations have been developed that can completely eliminate any traces of HIV from the bloodstreams of carriers. The only proviso being that such drug �cocktails� are started very soon after the HIV infection of the patient. Even though such cocktails have eliminated the AIDS virus from the bloodstreams of many HIV carriers � most notably the basketball legend, Erwin �Magic� Johnson � these patients have remained just that � carriers. This is because, the researchers and doctors are not absolutely certain that the HIV has been completely eliminated from these patients� systems, and it is why no one has yet announced a cure for AIDS. It is with the logic of the argument in the paragraph above in mind, that one cringes at the suggestion that Dr Agbalaka has indeed found a cure for AIDS. We have arrived this far in understanding the AIDS virus by years of research by hundreds of brilliant doctors and scientists around the world, who are funded to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Is it strange therefore, that some people are skeptical about claims for an AIDS cure by a Nigerian doctor with rather less experience and resources than the combined pool of his foreign counterparts? As an epilogue to this discourse, it should be emphasized that in most of the world � especially in sub-Saharan Africa � HIV transmission is primarily via the heterosexual mode. Unfortunately, in the same part of the world, ignorance, denial, and social culture combine with casual heterosexual intercourse, to crystallize a deadly cocktail for HIV transmission. With this in mind, the perspective in which an unqualified, unverified propounded AIDS cure should be pondered, is one where Nigerians become even more complacent about the HIV epidemic, and wonder what all the fuss was about anyway. This about a disease that can, and probably will, devastate their lives (or the lives of people close to them) without even a snippet of compunction or passing thought. Dr Kelechi Ogbuehi

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