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A Cure for AIDS

There is currently no cure for AIDS or HIV infection. Although antiretroviral treatment can suppress HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – and can delay illness for many years, it cannot clear the virus completely. Sadly, this doesn’t stop countless quacks and con artists touting unproven, often dangerous “AIDS cures” to desperate people.

Distrust of Western medicine is not uncommon, especially in developing countries. The Internet abounds with rumours of the pharmaceutical industry or the U.S. government suppressing AIDS cures to protect the market for patented drugs. Many people would prefer a remedy that is “natural” or “traditional”.

However, there is hope and optimism around the possibility of a genuine cure for HIV being developed within the next few decades. The launch of a new strategy to develop a cure, involving scientists, policy makers, funders and people living with HIV, in July 2012, marked an increased focus on the development of a cure as a potential approach to curbing the HIV and AIDS epidemic.1

back to top Where’s the harm in fake AIDS cures?

A man selling an unproven AIDS cure in Kainantu, Papua New Guinea A man selling an unproven AIDS cure in Papua New Guinea

Unproven cures for HIV and AIDS have been around since the syndrome emerged in the early 1980s. In most cases, they have only served to worsen suffering.

First of all, fake cures are a swindle. Someone who invests their savings in a worthless potion or an electrical zapper has less money to spend on real medicines and healthy food.

Many peddlers of bogus cures insist their clients avoid all other treatments, including antiretroviral medicines. By the time a patient realises the “cure” hasn’t worked, their prospects for successful antiretroviral treatment may well have diminished.

Fake cures may also cause direct harm to health. Inventors often refuse to reveal their recipes. Some so-called cures have been found to contain industrial solvents, disinfectants and other poisons. The dangers posed by the virgin cleansing myth – which advocates sex with children as a cure for AIDS – are only too clear.

Finally, the promotion of fake HIV cures undermines HIV prevention. People who believe in a cure are less likely to fear becoming infected with HIV, and hence less likely to take precautions.

“HIV is a chronic illness and over time patients can get tired and look for other forms of healing. We are seeing a trend slowly starting to develop of parallel treatments - people using petrol to heal themselves and others drinking urine. Also, within the Church, pastors from certain sects are telling them that it is witchcraft and that they should pray and not take medication, etc. Sometimes the community supports our patients in these beliefs and we must work hard to raise awareness to avoid tragedies like this.” LELO Patricia, Doctor, Democratic republic of Congo2

back to top Why is it so difficult to cure HIV and AIDS?

Curing AIDS is generally taken to mean clearing the body of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The virus replicates (makes new copies of itself) by inserting its genetic code into human cells, particularly a type known as CD4 cells. Usually the infected cells produce numerous HIV particles and die soon afterwards. Antiretroviral drugs interfere with this replication process, which is why the drugs are so effective at reducing the amount of HIV in a person’s body to extremely low levels. During treatment, the concentration of HIV in the blood often falls so low that it cannot be detected by the standard test, known as a viral load test.

Unfortunately, not all infected cells behave the same way. Probably the most important problem is posed by “resting” CD4 cells. Once infected with HIV, these cells, instead of producing new copies of the virus, lie dormant for many years or even decades. Current therapies cannot remove HIV’s genetic material from these cells. Even if someone takes antiretroviral drugs for many years they will still have some HIV hiding in various parts of their body. Studies have found that if treatment is removed then HIV can re-establish itself by leaking out of these “viral reservoirs”.

A cure for HIV must either: 1) remove every single one of the infected cells (known as a sterilising cure or eradication) or 2) control HIV effectively by keeping the virus dormant, after the discontinuation of treatment (known as a functional cure).3

back to top Reputable research on curing HIV and AIDS

The possibility of ‘a functional cure’

The results of a study involving fourteen French people living with HIV are one indicator that a ‘functional cure’ for HIV may be possible. The people involved, known as the ‘Visconti cohort’, started taking antiretrovirals very soon after they became infected. After three years of medication, they stopped taking ARVs, which would usually result in the HIV-infection resurging. However, on this occasion they were able to stop taking the medication and yet remain with low levels of virus in their systems for an average of seven years.4  

Purging the HIV reservoir

Many researchers believe the best hope for eradicating HIV infection lies in combining antiretroviral treatment with drugs that flush HIV from its hiding places. The idea is to force resting infected CD4 cells to become active, whereupon they will start producing new HIV particles. The activated cells should soon die or be destroyed by the immune system, and the antiretroviral medication should 'mop up' the released HIV. Chemical agents used to activate resting cells are called antilatency agents.

Early attempts to employ this technique used interleukin-2 (also known as IL-2 or by the brand name Proleukin). This chemical messenger tells the body to create more CD4 cells and to activate resting cells. Researchers who gave interleukin-2 together with antiretroviral treatment discovered they could no longer find any infected resting CD4 cells. But interleukin-2 failed to clear all of the HIV; as soon as the patients stopped taking antiretroviral drugs the virus came back again.5 6

A computer-generated image of HIV exiting a cell A computer-generated image of HIV exiting a cell

There is a problem with creating a massive number of active CD4 cells: despite the antiretroviral drugs, HIV may manage to infect a few of these cells and replicate, thus keeping the infection alive. Scientists are now investigating chemicals that don’t activate all resting CD4 cells, but only the tiny minority that are infected with HIV.

One such chemical is valproic acid, a drug already used to treat epilepsy and other conditions. In 2005 a group of researchers led by David Margolis caused a sensation when they reported that valproic acid, combined with antiretroviral treatment, had greatly reduced the number of HIV-infected resting CD4 cells in three of four patients. They concluded that:

“This finding, though not definitive, suggests that new approaches will allow the cure of HIV in the future.”7

Sadly, such optimism was premature; studies later suggested that valproic acid has no long term benefits.8 9

Another option being investigated to 'activate' resting HIV-infected cells is the use of histone deacetylases (HDAC) inhibitors. Histone deacetylases are enzymes that control the proteins involved in binding DNA. They effectively 'silence' groups of genes, including some HIV genes. Stopping them from doing this would allow for those resting HIV-infected cells to be reactivated. Agents that aim to stop histone deacetylases from 'switching off' or 'silencing' genes are called histones deacetylase inhibitors. SAHA (vorinostat) is a potent histone deacetylase inhibitor which is being tested in cell cultures for HIV.10

Any antilatency agents combined with ART aiming to 'reactivate' resting HIV-infected cells and then 'purge' these cells should reach all HIV-infected cells, including those in the difficult to reach areas like the gut-associated lymphoid tissue and the brain.11 However, this is where the real difficulty lies. Some researchers argue that this 'complete reactivation' could be unnecessary because those cells that are really hard to reach may be so dormant that the body will be able to control them anyway.12 However, whether or not this is true is unknown.13

Bone marrow transplants and gene therapy

In November 2008, a pair of German doctors made headlines by announcing they had cured a man of HIV infection by giving him a bone marrow transplant.14 The transplant - given as a treatment for leukemia - used cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation known as Delta 32 that confers resistance to HIV infection. Twenty months after the procedure researchers reported they could find no trace of HIV in the recipient's bone marrow, blood and other organ tissues. Other experts at the time called for more tests to verify the cure claim.15

In a journal article published in December 2010, the doctors concluded that the patient had indeed been cured of HIV infection. Their evidence showed a successful reconstitution of CD4 T cells at both the systemic level and in the gut mucosal immune system.16

Bone marrow transplantation is too dangerous and costly for widespread use as a cure. Many patients die as a result of chemotherapy or reactions to the transplant, which is usually a last resort in treating life-threatening diseases. As Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, put it:

“It’s very nice, and it’s not even surprising. But it’s just off the table of practicality.”17

Nevertheless the German transplant does raise hope for related approaches.18 If scientists can find another way - such as gene therapy - to confer the same sort of protection against HIV as Delta 32 provides, then they may be able to stop the virus replicating. Research in this area is in its very early stages; it may be many years before a useful treatment is found, if at all.19

Funding for research into a cure

Some of the world’s top research institutions are currently engaged in studies to learn more about infected resting cells and the behaviour of HIV. But the truth is that this field does not receive a lot of funding. Of the $1.54 billion spent by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) on AIDS in 2009, only $40 million was spent on AIDS cure research.20 This represents only 3 percent of the total NIAID AIDS budget.

One researcher has pointed out that "money for HIV cure research is scarce, especially for risky new ideas that might not pan out".21 Drug companies, in particular, would prefer to market their antiretroviral drugs. In a difficult economic climate, investing in something which might not be successful could simply seem too risky.

Yet there are still those who remain hopeful, including activist Martin Delaney who is among those calling for an end to defeatism:

“Far too many people with HIV, as well as their doctors, have accepted the notion that a cure is not likely. No one can be certain that a cure will be found. No one can predict the future. But one thing is certain: if we allow pessimism about a cure to dominate our thinking, we surely won’t get one… We must restore our belief in a cure and make it one of the central demands of our activism.”22

back to top How to spot fake AIDS cures and treatments

As already stated, there is no proven cure for HIV or AIDS. The best advice is to steer clear of anyone claiming otherwise. For those who find themselves tempted, here are a few pointers for spotting quack therapies.

Who makes the claims?

Try to find some information about the person or people promoting the product. What are their credentials? If someone claims to be a doctor then they should say what type of doctor, and where they got their qualifications.

What claims do they make?

Look at how the product is presented. Reputable scientists and doctors don’t use sensational terms such as “miracle breakthrough”. Also watch for evidence of poor scientific understanding; for example, no expert would refer to HIV as “the HIV virus” or “the AIDS virus”.

It is very rare for a medicine to be 100% effective for all patients. It is highly implausible that a single product could cure a wide range of unrelated diseases such as cancer, asthma, AIDS and diabetes. A real scientist would be extremely wary of making such claims.

What’s in the cure?

Many inventors won’t reveal what goes into their so-called cures. Ask yourself why this might be. Could it be that their methods wouldn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny?

It is important to remember that words like “natural” and “herbal” are no guarantee of safety. After all, hemlock and ricin (derived from castor beans) are both entirely natural and extremely toxic. As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration points out,

“Any product – synthetic or natural – potent enough to work like a drug is going to be potent enough to cause side effects.”23

What evidence do they offer?

To gain the approval of medical authorities, any new treatment must undergo very extensive testing. Countless products destroy HIV in the laboratory but are ineffective or dangerous when used by people. A proper trial involves a large group of volunteers divided randomly into two sets. One half uses the test product and the other receives a placebo (a harmless pretend medicine that looks like the real thing). During the trial, neither the scientists nor the volunteers should know who is getting which treatment. Afterwards, the results for the two groups are compared to see if the test product performed better than the placebo.

Virtually all promoters of “AIDS cures” cannot provide any data from large-scale, randomised human trials. Instead they rely on anecdotes, personal testimonies, laboratory experiments or small-scale trials with no placebo comparison. This type of evidence is always unreliable.

Personal testimonies are notoriously untrustworthy. Usually there is no way of knowing whether the people in question ever existed, let alone whether they were helped by the therapy. There have been cases of people being paid to pretend they’ve been cured. And even if a handful of people really did get better after they took the treatment, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it works; the improvements may just have been a coincidence. Many negative reports may have been left out of the promotional material.

Proving that HIV has been eradicated isn’t easy. Changes in symptoms or weight gain are not sufficient, and neither is a viral load test. Even if the test can’t detect HIV in the bloodstream (perhaps because the person has been on antiretroviral therapy), this doesn’t mean the virus has been cleared from all parts of the body. Much more thorough investigation is needed.

Beware of conspiracy theorists

Many sellers of fake medicines fall back on conspiracy theories to explain why their products haven’t undergone proper testing. They say that government agencies and the medical profession seek to suppress alternative treatments to safeguard the profits of the pharmaceutical industry.

This kind of allegation is a sure sign of a charlatan. In reality, leading scientists investigate all kinds of therapies that can’t be patented. For example, the U.S. government has funded research into using generic drugs (such as valproic acid) and human hormones (such as interleukin-2) as aids to ridding the body of HIV infection.

Do some research

Any important medical breakthrough will be reported in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, Science or The Lancet. The mainstream media will pick up the story and leading experts will express their opinions.

Simply typing the name of a supposed HIV cure into an Internet search engine and reading some of the resulting web pages will quickly establish whether it has widespread support. It is also worth searching an online medical database such as PubMed for scientific studies and reviews.

Consult an expert

Always talk to a doctor or other health professional before trying any medical treatment. If you need more information or a second opinion, try contacting a reputable health organisation or telephone helpline. Several American states have AIDS Fraud Task Forces dedicated to combating quackery, and local Food and Drug Administration offices can provide details of any action taken against a product or its manufacturer. Similar agencies operate in most other parts of the world.

back to top Examples of false or unproven cures

What follows is a list of some products and methods that have attracted attention in recent years. It is safe to say that none of these is a cure for HIV or AIDS. Many of these so-called remedies are likely to do more harm than good.

President Jammeh’s AIDS cure

President Jammeh of The Gambia, a small country in West Africa, made a dramatic announcement in January 2007:

“I can treat asthma and HIV/AIDS and the cure is a day’s treatment. Within three days the person should be tested again and I can tell you that he/she will be negative... The mandate I have is that HIV/AIDS cases can be treated on Thursdays. That is the good news and the bad news is that I cannot treat more than ten patients every Thursday.”24

Three weeks later the president’s office released the results of viral load tests conducted on the first batch of patients. According to the official statement, “the herbal medicine and therapy administered by President Jammeh have yielded results beyond all reasonable doubts, that they are effective and can cure AIDS.”25 On closer inspection, however, the findings were far from convincing.

Of the four patients with HIV-1, one had a very high viral load, one high, one moderate, and one undetectable. Of the four patients with HIV-2, one had a low viral load and three had less than the detectable level.26

The fact that half of the patients still had detectable virus in their blood shows that the president’s cure cannot be 100% effective. More importantly, as already noted, an undetectable viral load does not prove that HIV has been eradicated. Some of the patients had previously been taking antiretroviral therapy, which often renders the virus undetectable. Apparently no evaluation was done before the president’s treatment began.

The viral load tests were conducted at a university in Dakar, Senegal, using samples of the patients’ blood. It has since emerged that the scientists who ran the tests were unaware of the samples’ origin. The Senegalese experts rebutted the president’s interpretation of their findings:

“There is no baseline ... you can’t prove that someone has been cured of AIDS from just one data point. It’s dishonest of the Gambian government to use our results in this way” Dr. Coumba Toure Kane27
“The interpretation by the Gambian authorities of the results of HIV antibody and viral load testing on blood samples sent to my laboratory is incorrect... Of those samples that were HIV-positive (66.66%), none could be described as cured.” Professor Souleymane Mboup28

The results of a second set of viral load tests, conducted by the National Institute of Hygiene in Morocco, were released in March 2007. For the first set of patients the numbers were similar to those found in Senegal. Among 31 other patients only six had undetectable viral loads.29

Clinical data for the third and fourth batch were released in October 2007. On this occasion the State House chose to withhold the name of the country in which the samples were tested. Twenty-seven of the seventy patients were found to have undetectable viral loads. Another twenty-seven had viral load counts above half a million, which is considered to be very high. The CD4 counts for twenty-seven of the seventy patients were below 200, which means they had progressed from HIV infection to AIDS. Curious repetitions within the viral load count data cast doubt on their accuracy.30

At least two of the president’s patients are known to have died.31

These unpromising outcomes have not shaken the president’s belief in his treatment, which is endorsed by the Gambian health ministry and is administered at state hospitals. President Jammeh, who has no medical qualifications, refuses to disclose exactly what goes into his cure. All he has revealed is that it involves seven herbs, “three of which are not from Gambia.”32 The treatment involves a green paste and a grey liquid each applied to the patient’s skin, and a yellowish tea-like drink. Even more important, according to President Jammeh, is the power of prayer:

“For everything that we do 90% we have to invoke the name of almighty Allah, and then 10% is what the herbs take care of.”33

Leading AIDS experts expressed great concern about President Jammeh’s exploits. According to Dr. Pedro Cahn, President of the International AIDS Society:

“It is premature and unethical to label this product a cure if it has not been thoroughly tested and proven. Furthermore, to take patients off potent combination antiretroviral therapy, which has saved millions of lives since its introduction in 1996, is shocking and irresponsible.”34

A fifth batch of patients began treatment in February 2008.35 In August 2008, the president was treating 122 people.36

Other herbal cures

Herbal mixtures comprise the most popular form of alternative AIDS therapy. Although it is possible that some of these treatments may benefit people with HIV, none is a proven cure.

  • Comforter’s Healing Gift, a South African company, produces an extract of a plant called sonneblom (not sunflower). According to Freddie Isaacs, the inventor of the treatment and a co-director of the company, this product is a cure for AIDS. Other spokespersons have said such claims go against company policy, and the product should be described as a nutritional supplement until it has undergone proper testing. According to some reports one of South Africa’s leading attorneys, Christine Qunta, is closely connected with Comforter’s Healing Gift.37 38
  • Dr. Sebi (born Alfredo Bowman) says his “electric foods” can cure AIDS, cancer and many other illnesses. Sebi, who has offices in Honduras and the USA, has no medical qualifications and many of his views are totally at odds with basic principles of mainstream science. In Sebi’s opinion, AIDS (like all other diseases) occurs when “the mucous membrane has been compromised”.39 He says his plant extracts cure the illness by removing the mucous. Sebi was arrested in 1987 and again in 1997 for publishing false health claims and practising medicine without a licence.40 He has published no verifiable evidence to support his “AIDS cure”.
  • IMOD was developed by scientists from Russia and Iran. When the Iranian government unveiled the drug in February 2007, many media sources, including Iran’s Fars News Agency, described IMOD as an “AIDS cure”.41 The official IMOD website makes no such claim, but does say that human trials of the drug found it increased CD4 counts in HIV positive people.42 No study reports have been published in medical journals.
  • Khomeini (or Khomein or Comein) was invented by Professor Sheik Allagholi Elahi of Iran, who set up a clinic in Uganda to sell this so-called AIDS cure for more than $1,500 per patient. The Ugandan Ministry of Health appointed a team of experts to monitor some of the few hundred people taking the treatment. After their study showed Elahi’s claims to be false, the government banned the use and distribution of Khomeini in April 2006, and Ehahi was arrested.43
  • The fake AIDS cure Ubhejane on sale in a South African pharmacy The fake AIDS cure Ubhejane on sale in a South African pharmacy
    MAB Formula One and MAB Formula Two were developed by Ghanaian doctors and ethno-botanists led by Dr. Jacob Akumoah-Boateng. According to the researchers MAB Formula One kills HIV while MAB Formula Two boosts the immune system. Dr. Akumoah-Boateng says tests in the U.S. demonstrated the disappearance of HIV and HIV antibodies after the treatment was given, though none of the findings have been published in the medical literature.44
  • Ubhejane, a brown liquid said to be made from 89 herbs, has been taken by many hundreds of HIV positive South Africans. Its creator, Zeblon Gwala, says Ubhejane reduces viral load and increases CD4 counts in HIV positive people. He advises that it should not be taken at the same time as antiretroviral treatment.

    Ubhejane has often been referred to as a “cure for AIDS” and Gwala’s employees have reportedly promoted it as such, despite having no evidence from rigorous human trials.45 Scientists who have tested Ubhejane in the laboratory have stressed that they haven’t demonstrated any benefits to patients.46 South Africa’s opposition party has attempted to have Gwala prosecuted for fraud.47 In 2008, the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa demanded the withdrawal of an advertisement stating that Ubhejane boosted immunity and reduced viral load, having found these claims to be unsubstantiated.48

Chemicals

Many people mistakenly believe that what destroys HIV in the test tube must also work in the human body. This is one reason why a number of disinfectants and other chemicals have been wrongly promoted as cures for HIV.

  • Armenicum (also known as iodine-lithium-alpha-dextrin or ILalphaD) is a type of iodophor, a chemical that slowly releases iodine when mixed with water. According to Armenian scientists Armenicum, injected into the bloodstream, acts as an antiretroviral drug by blocking the replication of HIV. They claim to have evidence that the substance reduces viral load and increases CD4 counts in HIV positive people. The inventor of Armenicum, Alexander Ilyen, once said he was convinced it would lead to an AIDS cure.49 No studies of HIV positive people treated with Armenicum have been published in peer-reviewed journals. In a report on an animal experiment published in June 2007 the Armenicum research team admits that, “The systemic therapeutic application of iodophores has not yet been accepted”.50 A BBC investigation of Armenicum in 1999 found that the health of two American men got worse after they took the drug.51 Nevertheless the Armenian government has invested most of its HIV treatment resources in Armenicum, which costs more than three times as much as antiretroviral therapy. By late 2008, ten years after the drug was introduced, around 800 people had taken Armenicum.52
  • Colloidal silver is a suspension of extremely tiny silver particles in water. Many websites say this clear, colourless liquid effectively treats a wide range of bacterial and viral infections, including HIV infection. While it is true that colloidal silver kills germs in laboratory conditions, there is no reliable evidence of any benefit in people. Contrary to the claims of many retailers, colloidal silver is not harmless. Regular use can cause an irreversible bluish-grey discolouration of the skin, known as argyria.53 Consuming very large amounts of colloidal silver may lead to neurologic problems, kidney damage, stomach distress, headaches, fatigue, and skin irritation.54 There has been at least one reported case of a man falling into a coma after ingesting colloidal silver.55 In America it is illegal for retailers to make any health claims for this product.56
  • Tetrasil (or Imusil) is a substance containing tetrasilver tetroxide. A patent held by Dr. Marvin S. Antelman claims that this simple chemical compound cures AIDS by “electrocuting” HIV.57 Dr. Antelman admits his approach to AIDS is “non-conventional” and he does not trust viral load tests: “Accordingly we have patients who display viral load reduction and those that do not who are nevertheless cured of AIDS”, he has said.58 Tetrasilver tetroxide is more commonly used for disinfecting swimming pools.59 After it was promoted as an AIDS cure in Zambia the government banned Tetrasil because it has no proven benefits for people living with HIV.60 In America it is illegal to promote Tetrasil for the treatment or prevention of any disease.61
  • Virodene is based on the industrial solvent dimethylformamide (DMF). In the late 1990s this chemical was touted as a possible cure for AIDS. For several years senior members of the South African government, including Thabo Mbeki, vehemently supported research into Virodene as an AIDS treatment, against the advice of medical experts. South Africa’s drug regulators have long prohibited use of Virodene as it has no proven benefits. Laboratory studies have found that DMF does not destroy HIV or inhibit its replication. The only trial of its effectiveness in humans, conducted in Tanzania, found that Virodene did not reduce viral load and had only marginal effects on the immune system.62 DMF is considered a toxic substance; workers are advised to avoid skin contact with the chemical because it may cause serious liver damage.63 64 Imunoxx, which a Namibian company markets as an immune booster, is essentially identical to Virodene.

Oxygen therapy

  • Hydrogen peroxide, diluted in water, is commonly used as a bleach and a disinfectant. Some alternative health practitioners advocate drinking, injecting or bathing in weak solutions of this chemical as a cure for AIDS, flu, cancer and other illnesses. There is no evidence to support these claims. Several people have died as a result of swallowing or injecting hydrogen peroxide.65 66
  • Ozone is an unstable form of oxygen gas. Ozone therapy has been proposed as a treatment or cure for many illnesses, including HIV infection. One delivery method is autohemotherapy, which involves removing some of a patient’s blood, exposing it to ozone, and then putting it back into the patient. Alternatives include pumping the gas into the rectum, drinking water containing ozone bubbles (ozonized water, which contains hydrogen peroxide), or injecting the gas into the bloodstream. Studies of ozone autohemotherapy in HIV positive people have found it has no significant effect on CD4 counts and other outcomes.67 68 According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “Ozone is a toxic gas with no known useful medical application in specific, adjunctive, or preventive therapy. In order for ozone to be effective as a germicide, it must be present in a concentration far greater than that which can be safely tolerated by man and animals.”69 It is illegal for retailers in America to make any health claims for ozone generators.

Electrical zappers

  • Dr. Hulda Clark (1928-2009) was not a licensed medical doctor. She promoted a range of products said to cure AIDS including an electrical “zapper” which, by generating low voltage electricity, was supposed to kill parasites, bacteria and viruses in the body. No proper studies of the zapper were conducted. Dr. Clark’s methods of diagnosing HIV were highly unconventional; she believed that HIV comes from intestinal worms in the presence of benzene, and that HIV can be found in snails.70 It is therefore doubtful whether the people she claimed to have cured of HIV infection were ever really infected.71 Dr. Clark left America after being taken to court for practising medicine without a licence.72 She then opened a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, where she also ran into trouble with the authorities.73
  • The Bob Beck Protocol involves a set of therapies devised by the late Dr. Bob Beck (who was not a medical doctor) that are supposed to cure AIDS, cancer and all other diseases. The four components are electric currents, magnetic pulses, colloidal silver and ozonized water. There is no good evidence that electricity can cure any infection. Claims about the healing powers of Bob Beck’s devices are based entirely on test tube studies and unverifiable anecdotes.

Immune boosters

Some so-called AIDS cures are meant to stimulate the human immune system. Since HIV makes new copies of itself by infecting active immune cells, there is a real danger that such therapies will hasten the spread of the virus rather than contain it.

  • Dr. Gary R. Davis got his idea for an AIDS cure from a goat that appeared in his dreams. The late Dr. Davis never prescribed his goat serum treatment (known as BB7075) to HIV positive Americans due to legal restrictions. In 1998 one young girl, Precious Thomas, was given the serum by her mother, who stole it from Davis’ office. Some websites say the girl was cured of HIV infection, based on a viral load test conducted soon afterwards.74 After being denied approval in America, Dr. Davis and his associates tried to conduct goat serum trials in Ghana. Again he was stopped because “the supporting evidence for asking for registration and use of the serum was totally inadequate”.75 In late 2006, a few months before Dr. Davis’ death, the BBC exposed an attempt by a British company to test the substance on dozens of people in Swaziland, despite the lack of toxicity tests and other necessary preliminary studies.76
  • The Antidote – a drug derived from a crocodile protein – has been promoted via spam email and websites with the promise that “It kills all known deadly viruses and bacteria in the body”.77 Absolutely no scientific evidence has been offered to support this claim.
  • V-1 Immunitor (or V-AIM or Immureboost) is a pink pill containing antigens taken from the pooled blood of HIV positive people. A clinic in Thailand began distributing V-1 in 2001. Demand soared when the pill’s inventor, Vichai Jirathitikal, said it had eliminated HIV in two patients.78 The Thai Ministry of Public Health responded by conducting a study of those receiving V-1; the findings were not encouraging. According to a government minister, “the pill does not have any effect on the body’s immune system, white blood cell count and amount of the virus in the blood”.79 Other studies of the so-called vaccine – all carried out by employees of its manufacturer – do not provide convincing evidence of benefit. AIDS patients treated with V-1 typically survive for a matter of weeks, as opposed to the years achieved through antiretroviral treatment.80 Although the company has said that people treated with V-1 have “serodeconverted” from HIV-positive to HIV-negative,81 this claim is based on unreliable evidence and is not taken seriously by the scientific community; no peer reviewed journal has published the "serodeconversion" report written by the Immunitor team. The manufacturing and sales licences for V-1 in Thailand were revoked in April 2003.82 83 Apparently undaunted, Vichai Jirathitikal and a company called Immureboost have continued to promote the product under the new name V-AIM, describing it as a therapeutic vaccine rather than a cure for AIDS.84 85

Faith-based cures

Religious bodies have done much to help the response to HIV and AIDS, especially by caring for the sick. Sadly a small minority of religious leaders have abused the trust placed in them by promising to cure AIDS through faith, sometimes in exchange for money or gifts. Most reports come from sub-Saharan Africa, where evangelical Americans are among those implicated.86

One of the most startling examples of recent times concerns an Ethiopian church where thousands of HIV positive people have sought a cure in showers of holy water. At one time, pilgrims were told to trust in faith alone and to refuse medication.87 Church patriarch Abune Paulos has since endorsed the use of antiretroviral treatment:

“What we are saying is taking the drugs is neither a sin nor a crime. Both the Holy Water and the medicine are gifts of God. They neither contradict nor resist each other.”88
Billboard in Zambia confronting the A road sign in Zambia confronting the "virgin AIDS cure myth"

The virgin cleansing myth

The myth that sex with a virgin can cure sexually transmitted diseases has a long history in Europe and elsewhere. Since the emergence of the AIDS epidemic, there has been much concern that this belief might encourage the rape of children, especially in certain parts of sub-Saharan Africa where HIV is widespread. A number of horrific reports in the popular press have fuelled such anxiety.

Belief in the virgin cleansing myth has been reported from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. There is no doubt that it has led to abuse of not only children but also the disabled (who are often assumed to be virgins).89 Nevertheless, the scale of the myth’s impact is disputed because it is not the only motivation behind child rape.90 91

Thankfully efforts are being made to dispel the virgin cleansing myth around the world. But to effectively clamp down on child rape, such campaigns must be accompanied by changes to the cultural and legal environment that enables abuse to take place.

Spontaneous cures: Andrew Stimpson

Occasionally there are reports of HIV seeming to vanish for no obvious reason. One especially sensational story broke on 13th November 2005, when two British newspapers reported that a 25-year old Scot, Andrew Stimpson, had become the first person to be cured of HIV infection.92 93

In interviews with the two papers, Stimpson said he first suspected he might have HIV in 2002, after several weeks of feeling tired and feverish. Knowing his partner had been HIV positive for a number of years, Stimpson visited the Victoria Sexual Health Clinic in London for an HIV antibody test in May. The result was negative, but he was encouraged to return for further tests, as HIV antibodies often do not appear in the blood until several weeks or even months after initial infection.

In August 2002, Stimpson returned for three more HIV antibody tests. His first, taken on the 15th, was “indeterminate” (i.e. neither definitely positive nor negative), but the following two (taken on 20th and 23rd August) both found him to be HIV antibody positive. However, a viral load test showed the amount of virus in his blood was low, so he was not prescribed antiretroviral therapy. He made a personal choice to start taking multivitamin and mineral tablets and other dietary supplements.

For fourteen months Stimpson remained surprisingly healthy, so much so that, in October 2003, his doctor offered him a repeat test for HIV antibodies. Remarkably, the test came back negative. Two more, carried out in December 2003 and March 2004, also gave negative results.

Andrew Stimpson tried to launch a legal case against the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust (CWT) which had tested him, assuming his results had been mixed up with those of another client. The blood samples associated with his original positive diagnosis and his subsequent negative results were retested, and the DNA from the samples compared to his. All the samples were found to belong to Stimpson, and retesting produced the same “positive then negative” antibody results. According to Stimpson:

“After the repeat tests my doctor came into the room saying, ‘You’ve cured yourself! This is unbelievable.’”94

Andrew Stimpson’s story became an overnight media sensation. But a statement from the CWT cast doubt on the cure claims:

“It is probable that there was never any evidence of Mr Stimpson having the HIV virus but rather that there was transient evidence of an antibody response to the virus present in his bloodstream when he had the initial tests... The antibody testing is exquisitely sensitive and the smallest measure can be recorded which is probably what happened in this case.”95

A spokesperson for the CWT later said they had not categorically stated that Andrew Stimpson’s case was an example of a false positive test result, but that it was one of a number of scenarios that needed to be considered.96 The media quickly accepted the “false positive” explanation, and by the end of the month the story had ceased to be of interest to them.

The only news since then dates from June 2006, when the Guardian newspaper reported that Stimpson was still working with doctors, but that because of medical confidentiality, very little more was known about the case. However, Anna Maria Geretti, a clinical virologist at the Royal Free Hospital, was willing to speculate:

“These follow-up tests are very complicated. They could take over six months. But personally, I’m sceptical that they will find a cure from this case.”97

back to top Conclusion

Unfortunately it is often vulnerable and desperate people, or those who are simply unaware that there is no cure for HIV, who are misled by fake HIV and AIDS cures. Promoting fake cures is damaging because it can stop people from seeking or adhering to effective HIV treatment.

It may take many years for a cost-effective cure for HIV to be found, if ever. However, findings in recent years have led to a greater understanding of how a cure for HIV could work, the barriers that must be overcome, and the potential strategies that could be used to overcome them. There are those, like Françoise Barre-Sinoussi, who are optimistic that finding a cure for HIV is simply a matter of time and that strong collaboration between researchers and greater funding is what is needed.

“A cure will require funding commitments, strong community engagement, rigorous and innovative scientific endeavor and, above all, further collaborative multidisciplinary science with a better connection between basic and clinical research — in short, all the same ingredients that got us where we are today with the global antiretroviral treatment.”98

In 2011, a group of scientists and stakeholder HIV organisations from around the world committed to a global scientific strategy, "Towards an HIV Cure". The strategy aims to stimulate international research in this area and provide a 'road map' towards an HIV cure, including identifying the scientific priorities for HIV cure research.99 100

On the other hand, there are those, such as the virologist Robert Weiss, who feel that advocating for a cure is a 'distraction' and greater effort must be spent on trying to find a therapeutic HIV vaccine.

“ I don't believe you can cure HIV infection, but you can keep the amount of virus down...I would prefer to see a vaccine so we can stop people being infected in the first place. But we're still years away from having one for HIV. ”101
Nominet Winner 2012

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