Who would have thought there could be a
groundbreaking discovery of this magnitude
in Nigeria ? Well, it was a joyous news on
Tuesday when the Dean, School of Basic
Medical Sciences, University of Benin
(UNIBEN), Prof. Isaiah Ibeh, announced the
development of a new drug that can possibly
cure HIV and AIDS. However, the joy was
short-lived after the claim became
controversial.
Ibeh disclosed that the herbal drug had
undergone “series of successful tests” and
had been positive. According to him, “We are
at the threshold of making history, in the
sense that we seem to have with us
something that will permanently take care of
what, over time, seemed to have defied all
solutions.
“We are talking about the latest discovery of
an oral drug made from plants extraction in
Nigeria for the possible cure of the pandemic
HIV and AIDS virus”. He disclosed that
research on the project started in 2010 and
culminated in the development of
“Deconcotion X (DX)–Liquid or Bioclean 11 for
the cure of HIV and AIDS”.
“The existing retroviral drugs are intervention
drugs for the management of AIDS but our
new discovery is a possible cure. We have
tried to look at the product first; its
toxicological analysis and discovered that it
has a large safety margin. This means that if
animals or human beings are exposed to it,
they will not suffer any serious harm at all
from the exposure.
It also helped us to know the quantity we can
conveniently give to animals and will feel
secure that nothing untoward will happen.
We have also done the bacteriological
analysis on it, after which we looked at its
effect on the virus and the result was quite
revealing and refreshing.”
*Prof Ibeh
Ibeh said that the drug had been exposed to
series of medical examination both in Nigeria
and in the USA, adding that the drug had
performed well on patients with the HIV virus
and had shown evidence of total restoration
of damaged tissues. The Dean’s words: “The
result showed an increase in the body weight
of the individual administered with DX. The
body weight was statistically significant when
compared with the control group”.
He pointed out that further tests were being
conducted to determine at what point will a
patient become negative after being
administered the drug, saying: “This
verification is necessary because it is what is
used to measure whether infection is still
there or not.
So we need to know the siro-convention time.
But preliminary results showed that of the
five latest patients orally administered with
the drugs, our findings is that up to seven
months , three of them were siro negative
while two were sill faintly positive.” He
therefore solicited the support of the Federal
Government with a view to sustaining the
research which he described as very
successful.
However, controversy started 24 hours later,
when the Provost, College of Medical
Sciences, Prof. Vincent Iyawe, distanced the
authorities of UNIBEN from the alleged
breakthrough announced by Ibeh, saying it
had not been verified.
The disagreement between the duo on the
issue is a throw-back to the days of Dr
Agbalaka of an Abuja hospital who claimed he
had found cure for the HIV/AIDS; that was in
2008. Iyawe, who spoke to journalists on the
issue, said UNIBEN was unaware of the
breakthrough, and would therefore not
substantiate it until procedures for verifying it
was concluded.
The provost pointed out that there are
procedures to be observed in such a situation
before the school will allow its name to be
associated with it. According to him, “The
school will like to take credit for a
breakthrough, but the school cannot align
with the breakthrough, because the
university college was not consulted; the
university was not consulted. He (Ibeh) didn’t
carry anybody along.
There are protocols and procedures, stage by
stage procedures. We are going to take it to
the clinical lab, we are going to take it the
Federal Ministry of Health, because they have
a procedure there, we’ll probably take it to
NAFDAC, because it is a unit or department of
the Ministry, we’ll take it for clinical trial, and
many things we’ll have to do before we can
announce that we discovered something; in
fact, we actually have to take it to the World
Health Organization; so these are the things
we are discussing”.
Asked whether Ibeh was unaware of such
procedure before going public with the news
of his breakthrough, Iyawe said, “I don’t
know, he can answer that question, but we
are not granting a press interview. I said that
after we have finished we can still call in
(press) you people. All we are doing is to
protect him.”
The provost, however, expressed uncertainty
over time duration it could take the UNIBEN
authorities to ascertain the veracity of Ibeh’s
claim, saying, “It depends on what we are
dealing with; it depends on the virus or
bacteria you are dealing with; it can be years,
it’s not something you expect an answer in
two weeks or one month’s time. Don’t drag
me into this”.
Ibeh later came up with a statement saying
he was misrepresented on his HIV/AIDS cure
claim. UNIBEN, also through a statement by
its spokesman, Harrison Oransanye,
maintained that the institution was unaware
of the Dean’s claim and said the authorities
will look at the matter very critically.
Ibeh’s release stated, “My attention has been
drawn to publications in our national dailies of
January 9, with reference to our HIV/AIDS
research findings. I wish to state clearly that
the said publications were a
misrepresentation of what actually
transpired.
The true position is that some observations of
our research are preliminary and the research
is still on-going. I am sorry for the
embarrassment this has caused the
University of Benin and professional
colleagues, realizing that there are
procedures of reporting such scientific
results.”
The university, in its statement, expressed
embarrassment over the development.
It read, “Authorities of the University of Benin
wish to dissociate itself from the claim of the
development of a drug that could cure HIV
and AIDS by the Dean, School of Basic
Medical Sciences of the University, Professor
Isaiah Ibeh, as reported in the Internet and
some national dailies of 9th January, 2013.
As a reputable institution, well rooted in the
promotion of research and development, the
university considers the publicized claim an
embarrassment, bearing in mind that there
are laid down procedures for disseminating
academic breakthroughs. Sadly, the
procedure did not follow the laid down
protocol in this circumstance.
For the avoidance of doubt, the said claim by
Professor Ibeh is a research exercise which is
still in its infancy stage and therefore
ongoing.” Sunday Vanguard learn that the
UNIBEN Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Osayuki
Oshodin, was not happy with the
development because of the seeming
negative image it created for the university
which has enjoyed tremendous development
and peaceful learning environment since he
resumed office three years ago. It was learnt
that Oshodin called for probe into the matter
and warned against any action capable of
tarnishing the image of the university.
No comments:
Post a Comment