Doctor agrees to submit alleged anti-AIDS vaccine for testing

A Nigerian doctor who claims to have developed a vaccine and cure for AIDS has told a parliamentary Committee on Health that he would submit his work for verification after initially refusing to do so. Dr. Jeremiah Abalaka’s medical claims regarding AIDS have not been accepted by the international health community, nor endorsed by Nigeria’s leading health practitioners. “Now I have sent it to America and I’m ready to make it available to the house for investigation,” the ‘Vanguard’ newspaper quoted him on Tuesday as saying. The prohibition of the sale of all locally produced HIV drugs was announced on 20 July by Health Minister Tim Menakaya. He said the drugs would remained banned until scientifically tested. In June, the Nigerian Academy of Sciences criticised Abalaka for refusing to have his vaccine examined. Meanwhile, Menakaya, who is attending a meeting of regional health ministers in Ouagadougou, has called for tying debt relief to the fight against AIDS and other diseases. PANA on Wednesday quoted him as saying that poverty was a health problem and “unless poverty reduction goes hand-in-hand with the fight against HIV/AIDS, we are not likely to move anywhere”. Menakaya suggested that Africa ask the World Health Organization to advocate debt write-offs for countries that are badly hit by AIDS. Nigeria’s debt - about US $28 billion - and AIDS were among the main issues discussed by President Olusegun Obasanjo and US President Bill Clinton during Clinton’s visit to Nigeria last weekend.