NAFDAC investigates HIV cure claim

August 9, 2006 :: Chinyere Amalu Vanguard,Lagos

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is currently investigating allegation of unethical clinical practice of HIV on patients by a professor. The suspect (names withheld) is said to have been using lime and lemon to carry out a test for HIV in the private parts of some women in Jos, Plateau State.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Dora Akunyili who disclosed this at the inauguration of 7-member National Drug Safety Committee in Abuja, said the suspect would be prosecuted if the allegation was proved to be true.

She said; “The report reaching NAFDAC is that the professor has assembled some downtrodden women as experimental samples for a possible use of lime and lemon as preventive drugs for HIV infection.”

She said that the inauguration of the drug advisory committee is for an urgent intervention measure taken by NAFDAC to check the prevalent cases of abuse of clinical trials of drugs in hospitals and adverse drug reactions (ADR) in patients.

 “Members of the committee are the best minds in various fields of medicine and pharmacology who shall serve as watch dog and ‘whistle blows’ for ADR cases in the country. "The committee is expected to bridge the existing gap in the drug safety monitoring of the agency, offer advice on drug safety, broaden the scope of information that goes into decision-making processes, and act as channels for disseminating drug safety information to the public.”