From Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
The Gombe State chapter of the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) has raised concerns over the use of herbal medicines as a treatment for HIV in the state. Stating that no fewer than four people have reportedly died of the wrong medication.
This was revealed by the Gombe State Program Officer of NEPWAN, Muhammad Kabir Ibrahim while speaking during the 2023 World AIDS Day commemoration event in Gombe. He explained that the tragedy underscores the urgent need for the government and other stakeholders to work on verifying and regulating all alternative treatments being used to treat illnesses like HIV.
According to Ibrahim, a lot of HIV-positive patients who are desperately in for a cure in Gombe are subscribing and taking herbal remedy which is now killing them. He said, “A lot of our members are subscribing and using herbal medicine based on the information being spread by the hawkers of the traditional medicine who are everywhere in Gombe.”
These people are openly advertising and claiming that they have discovered the treatment for HIV as a result a lot of our people are buying the medicine and there is no scientific proof that the herbal treatments are real. We want the government to look into this and do needful, anybody that claims to have found treatment for HIV should be identified and invited by the government to verify his claims and certify it before public sales and use,” Ibrahim said in an interview with Daily Sun.
In a swift response to the development, the government of Gombe State has warned against the use of herbal and traditional medicine for the treatment of alignment. Speaking through the state’s commissioner of Health, Dr Habu Dahiru, the government assured that it has always warned against the use of herbals that have not been certified and scientifically approved.
The commissioner said, “We have always discouraged the use of a remedy that has not been certified. To use a drug or herbal in treating a certain illness it has to undergo various stages of test and certification before approval. We have not heard of any herbal that has been certified for HIV treatment.”