A look at controversial AIDS practices in Africa

A look at African countries where the government and others have questioned anti-retroviral drugs and advocated alternative treatment for AIDS.

SOUTH AFRICA:

_ President Thabo Mbeki has questioned the effectiveness of anti-retroviral drugs and challenged the link between HIV and AIDS. The health minister drew international condemnation last year for saying a diet of beet root, garlic, lemons and African potatoes was more effective against AIDS than anti-retroviral drugs.

_ Activists and doctors took legal action in 2005 to try to close down the operations of a German-born doctor who claimed his vitamin supplements cured AIDS and that anti-retroviral medicines were toxic.

GAMBIA:

_ President Yahya Jammeh claims he has a miracle cure for AIDS: prayer, a green herbal paste, a bitter yellow drink and two bananas. Regular radio and TV addresses have publicized the treatment, which the government provides free of charge. The treatment is voluntary but patients who use it are required to cease their anti-retroviral drugs.

KENYA:

_ Police charged a self-styled prophet with fraud in 2006 alleging she got thousands of dollars from people she promised to cure of HIV/AIDS through prayers. Local media reported the victims were taken to colluding clinics that tested them and issued false results showing they were no longer infected.

_ In 1996, AIDS patients claimed they were cured following an open air healing mass at Holy Ghost Catholic Cathedral in Mombasa.

_ Herbalists throughout Kenya have used plants to treat the virus, some promising a cure.

NIGERIA:

_ Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua has professed to cure AIDS by laying his hands on patients visiting his Church of All Nations in Lagos.

UGANDA:

_ Local media reported the arrest in 2006 of an Iranian professor based in Kampala who distributed a banned herb, which he claimed cured AIDS.