[Ip-health] Human Rights Watch,UN: Action Needed Against Unproven HIV/AIDS Treatments

[Riaz K Tayob]

Human Rights Watch
UN: Action Needed Against Unproven HIV/AIDS Treatments

In the era of expanded antiretroviral treatment programs, the failure of
governments to monitor these false claims and ensure accurate
information about life-saving antiretroviral drugs undermines global
efforts to fight AIDS.
Joseph Amon, HIV/AIDS Program Director, Human Rights Watch
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Iran: Guarantee protections for HIV patients

February 27, 2008

The United Nations and its member states are failing to address serious
threats to life and health posed by the promotion of unproven AIDS
"cures" and by counterfeit antiretroviral drugs, Human Rights Watch said
today.

In an article published yesterday, "Dangerous medicines: Unproven AIDS
cures and counterfeit antiretroviral drugs", in the peer-reviewed
journal Globalization and Health, Human Rights Watch cited examples of
the promotion of unproven AIDS treatments in countries as diverse as
Zambia, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, India, and Zimbabwe. The article
also discusses how the absence of regulation or monitoring for
counterfeit antiretroviral medicines threatens the lives and health of
thousands of people living with HIV and AIDS, even in regions like
Southeast Asia where counterfeit pharmaceuticals are widespread.

"Fake cures have been promoted since AIDS was first identified," said
Joseph Amon, HIV/AIDS Program Director at Human Rights Watch and author
of the article. "In the era of expanded antiretroviral treatment
programs, the failure of governments to monitor these false claims and
ensure accurate information about life-saving antiretroviral drugs
undermines global efforts to fight AIDS."

Gambia and Iran deserve particular scrutiny, according to the article.
In both countries, officials at the highest levels of government have
been directly involved in the promotion of unproven therapies.
International condemnation of their actions, however, has been absent or
muted.

In Gambia in February 2007, President Yahya Jammeh claimed to have
developed an herbal cure for AIDS that was effective in three days if
people taking the treatment discontinued taking antiretroviral drugs and
refrained from alcohol, caffeine, and sex. Following the announcement,
Gambian journalists who criticized the so-called cure were fired, and
the UN resident coordinator in Gambia, Fadzai Gwaradzimba, was
permanently expelled for asking for scientific proof of the treatment's
effectiveness.

Since Jammeh's announcement, scant global attention has been paid to the
availability of effective AIDS treatments in the country. Last week,
however, the Gambian government announced with much fanfare that Jammeh
had been awarded an honorary degree in Herbal and Homeopathic medicine
by the Brussels-based Jean Monnet European University. In accepting the
degree, Jammeh announced that he had discovered cures for obesity and
impotence, adding to his previously declared "cures" for infertility,
diabetes, and asthma. According to the President's office, hundreds of
people have taken the remedies for HIV/AIDS. Gambian authorities have
failed to provide information on the degree to which patients taking the
medicine had freely volunteered to do so, and also on independent
verification of the health outcomes.

Also in 2007, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced the
discovery of "IMOD" (an abbreviation for "immuno-modulator drug"), an
herbal AIDS treatment made from seven local Iranian herbs. The
government has promoted the drug as a "therapeutic vaccine" and as the
"first choice" for treatment in resource-constrained developing
countries. The President's Office for Technology Cooperation has also
promoted the remedy and sought partners for joint marketing, clinical
trials and manufacturing. According to news reports in November, the
Iranian Minister of Health and Medical Education stated that all
patients with advanced HIV disease=97more than 1,500 overall=97would be
treated with IMOD.

Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations to put pressure on
countries promoting unproven AIDS treatments to provide complete,
accurate information about effective HIV/AIDS treatment and to correct
false and misleading information about unproven therapies.

"Countries are gambling with the lives of people living with HIV by
promoting unproven AIDS remedies," said Amon. "The UN should condemn
this practice and work with governments and civil society groups to
ensure that effective AIDS treatment and information about it are provided.=
"

In 2006, the United Nations issued a declaration on HIV/AIDS committing
all member states to pursue "all necessary efforts" to scale up HIV/AIDS
treatment programs towards the goal of providing universal access to
HIV/AIDS treatment by 2010.

"Access to effective medicines is an indispensable part of the right to
the highest attainable standard of health," said Amon. "Billions of
dollars that are being spent on scaling up antiretroviral treatment will
be undermined if governments ignore the threats posed by unproven AIDS
treatments and counterfeit drugs."
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