By D'Arcy Doran
LAGOS (Reuters)
- Nigeria hosts an African AIDS summit this week, but efforts
to stem the epidemic are being undermined by the growing number
of home-grown ``cures,'' experts say.
The United
Nations says AIDS is Africa's number one killer and the U.N.-sponsored
summit, in Abuja from April 25-27, is expected to find ways to
avert an AIDS crisis in Nigeria, the continent's most populous
nation.
On the eve
of the conference, to be attended by former U.S. President Bill
Clinton and U.N. chief Kofi Annan , the state assembly in northern
Kano passed a bill endorsing a group claiming a spiritual cure
for AIDS.
The assembly's
house health committee said last week it had studied clinical
data and was satisfied with the cure, which involves smearing
honey and petroleum jelly on sufferers and reading verses of the
Koran.
More than
60 groups in Nigeria have announced purported cures for AIDS.
The semi-official Sunday Times reported that the government had
earmarked some $1.7 million for the Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical
Research and Development to test the claims.
AIDS groups
have protested, and UNICEF says the claims are blunting efforts
to spread the message that AIDS is a killer.
``Whatever
has been reported about cures are lies,'' warned Nsikak Ekpe,
President of the Nigeria AIDS Alliance, a support group for HIV
(news - web sites) and AIDS sufferers, at a news conference earlier
this month.
``Our members
have been used as guinea pigs for AIDS drugs trials and not one
of them came back better or cured,'' Ekpe said. ``Instead they
have their conditions complicated by other deadly infections like
hepatitis B and renal failure.''
Critical Stage
Nigeria is
at a critical stage in grappling with AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome). A 1999 study by the health ministry found 5.4 percent
of sexually active Nigerians, more than one in every 20, could
be carrying the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
The infection
rate has been rising ever since and unless it is brought under
control immediately, experts say it will grow exponentially.
The cure claims
are frustrating efforts to tackle widespread ignorance surrounding
the disease, which was a taboo subject under the military regime
of General Sani Abacha.
``It is going
to take a lot of work to get people to understand that no traditional
healer can cure you,'' UNICEF Nigeria spokeswoman Rosemary Wellington
said.
Hundreds have
made the pilgrimage to Abuja, where top military officers said
immunologist Jeremiah Abalaka had cured 30 soldiers of AIDS, despite
later denials by the defense minister.
Health ministers
have only been allowed to publicly discuss AIDS since May 1999,
when a democratic government came to power, UNICEF's head of information
in Nigeria, Battiloi Warritay said.
Some Nigerians
remain skeptical the disease even exists.
``I don't
believe in AIDS,'' Victor Igboke, a 26-year-old street trader
said. ``I have never seen anybody that is carrying AIDS.''
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