Gambian President Claims He Can Cure Aids.

[zingii]

Gambia's President Claims to Cure AIDS-By: The New York Times 15 Mar 2007

Gambia’s President Claims to Cure AIDS
By Robert Mackey




Yahya Jammeh, president of Gambia, treating an H.I.V. patient at the State House in Banjul, Gambia. (Photo: A.P.)A report on the English-language Web site of Spiegel Online draws our attention to Yahya Jammeh, the president of Gambia, who claims that he has the power to cure H.I.V. and AIDS, but can do so only on Thursdays. Yahya Jammeh, 41 years old, has been the president of bitterly poor Gambia since seizing power in a putsch in 1994. In the three so-called elections since then, he has not relinquished his seat. Among his achievements to date have been giving Gambia’s 1.6 million citizens an impressive triumphal arch — just like Napoleon gave the French — as well as founding Gambia’s first and only university.

Now he has gone a step further. A few weeks ago, Jammeh summoned his followers and a few ambassadors, dignitaries and TV reporters to announce in a garbled address that, having made some fantastic discoveries, he is now capable of curing AIDS (as well as asthma). The president admitted to his astonished audience that the therapies still had a few limitations — he could only cure AIDS on Thursdays. Asthma, on the other hand, could be treated only on Fridays and Saturdays. an estimated 20,000 Gambians — about 1.2 percent of the population — are infected with HIV. Jammeh claims to have successfully treated nine of them in January, and 27 more in February. He takes equal pride in the 500 asthma victims that he’s cured. And he promises to take action soon to eliminate other diseases, since he claims to have a “mandate” — apparently from none other than God himself.

International aid organizations are horrified to find that thousands of infected Gambians are hoping to be treated by the president. Jammeh says he’ll heal anyone, young or old. He won’t take payment, but he does make one stipulation: those who are taking anti-viral medication must stop doing so immediately. Two respected HIV/AIDS experts promptly handed in their resignation in protest. according to an Associated Press report, the main elements of the treatment are “a green herbal paste” that Mr. Jammeh, a former army colonel, rubs on to the skin of the patients he sees, and “a bitter yellow drink” he has them swallow.

The Daily Observer, a Gambian newspaper, has a full transcript of the president’s remarkable statement, in which he delivered “the good news” that “I now have the mandate to cure people publicly.” He also stressed that “the bad news is that I cannot treat more than ten patients every Thursday. There is nothing I can do about it, and if I go beyond that I will have to pay the price.”

Not surprisingly, international aid workers combatting H.I.V. and AIDS in Gambia are taken aback by the president’s claims, and by the fact that the country’s health minister, Dr. Tamsir Mbowe, recently told the Sky News reporter Emma Hurd that it was “one hundred percent the president can cure everyone, it is absolutely medically proven.” Ms. Hurd’s report included an interview with the resident coordinator of U.N. operations in Gambia, Fadzai Gwaradzimba, who expressed this concern: If people start to believe there is a cure, then they will start to engage in risky behavior, and that could mean even more of a problem with AIDS in this continent.

The day after Ms. Hurd’s report was broadcast, the president published a statement on his official Web site calling it “full of misinformation, lies and absurdities,” and complaining that Ms. Gwaradzimba’s comments were “irresponsible and most unexpected.” The day after that, Ms. Gwaradzimba, Reuters reported, “was given 48 hours to leave the country” by the Gambian government. It has fallen to the Gambian expatriate community to publically criticize the president. The Gambia Echo, an online newspaper based in North Carolina, published an editorial written by Fa K. J. Jadama-Ojiambo in Nairobi, suggesting that “our current President Yahya Jammeh has apparently gone mad.”


By Robert Mackey

March 9, 2007,

[zingii]

[zingii]

What do you guys think on the presidents claims?

He can cure the aids only on thursdays and can only cure 10 people per thursday.
He also claims he can cure asthma on fridays and saturdays only.

[aka-peace-]

i saw this on a documentary about two years ago.
my conclusion, the guy suffers from delusion of grandeur.

[zingii]

On that documentary they patients say they feel much better.

[Goljano Lion]

On that documentary they patients say they feel much better.

it is just like the Placebo effect, don't believe that crap

[zingii]

Why is Somalia included in this map which shows countries with aids?

They even marked us red making us equall to ethiopia and south africa.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8356446/ns/health-aids

[Paddington Bear]

This is a problem that exists all over Africa. For example, the South African president, Jacob Zuma, believes that a quick shower after sex with an AIDS sufferer will prevent you from catching the disease.

[zingii]

^^^^:lol:

[ModerateMuslim]

wow, if true, that's great

and its also great news for many snetters, like mizzy_flame aka mizzy_jamaican

[rabanam]

Yahya Jammeh

[Gatspy]

Is he at it again or is this the same old claim?

[zingii]

On May 15, 2008, Jammeh announced that his government would introduce legislation that would set rules against homosexuals that would be “stricter than those in Iran”, and that he would "cut off the head" of any gay or lesbian person discovered in the country. News reports indicated his government intended to have all homosexuals in the country killed. In the speech given in Tallinding, Jammeh gave a "final ultimatum" to any gays or lesbians in The Gambia to leave the country.[22][23]

He can also cure homosexuality.