this is from The Daily Observer.

Finally, we got something that will put our poor little Gambia on the 
map. With this Boro boro koube jarra from our own Doctor J, The Gambia 
will soon be Mecca for the world's 39 million people living with Aids.

With that said I think Gambian media houses should exercise some 
restraint as to what they publish about the President. HIV/AIDS is a 
very serious global problem with about 40 million people struggling with 
the disease. In 2005 alone about 3 million people lost their lives to 
AIDS. Many of these left behind shattered homes and communities. For a 
President of nation to use the bully pulpit to claim that he has a cure 
for HIV/AIDS amounts to calling fire fire in a movie theater. If Mr. 
Jammeh does not understand his position as a President of a country then 
the people around him should.

I am pretty sure that those who run media houses are dissent people with 
Gambian values. These ask for them to use their best judgement and turn 
the camera the other way if Mr. President decides to strip naked in 
public during the next July 22 celebration.


Malanding Jaiteh



Jammeh starts curing HIV/AIDS patients today
Written by Lamin M Dibba
Thursday, 18 January 2007

As the world’s scientists and medical doctors continue to scout for an 
HIV/AIDS cure, which they have not been able to find for the past 20 
years, The Gambian leader President Yahya Jammeh yesterday disclosed 
that he has the cure for the HIV/Aids pandemic as well as asthma.

Today at State House, the Gambian leader will start the treatment of 
HIV/Aids patients. His treatment of asthma patients will start on 
Saturday. Below, we reproduce the full text of the Gambian leader’s 
statement on the cure of the two diseases, delivered at State House at a 
ceremony attended by the Vice-President, Secretaries of States and many 
dignitaries.

“I call you to this meeting and maybe you will wonder why I called you 
including the two Ambassadors from Cuba and Taiwan. I called the two 
Ambassadors and of course Rose Clair Charles because you have a direct 
link with the health delivery system of this country. You know that Cuba 
is a key partner in our health sector and Taiwan is the force behind the 
Medical Team in The Gambia. This is a follow up to what I said on GRTS 
that I will now fully participate in the treatment of certain critical 
cases.

Since 1994, there are many Gambians who know what I can do. A lot of 
people have been treated in silence or under conditions of strict 
confidentiality .One would wonder why I start giving medicine to the 
public and all of a sudden stop. I have been having a lot of queries 
about that even after we went to the RVTH on Saturday. People were 
saying, “Well, the President. This is what he does. He will introduce 
very effective medicines and all of a sudden it will die down and we 
will not have access to him.”

I had to work on instructions. I don’t have the mandate to do it 
publicly in great numbers. I was only restricted to a small number so as 
to be able to prove to people that what I say is what I can do before I 
have the permission to do it publicly.

I am not speculating on my medicine. There are living witnesses to what 
my medicine can do. As far as I am concerned it takes only five minutes 
to cure asthma. I have other medicinal herbs that can take care of a 
number of illnesses. One of it was the one that was sold publicly at the 
July 22 Square and the Serrekunda Police Station. But of course, it has 
to stop at a point because I don’t have the mandate to go beyond that.
I now have the mandate to cure people publicly under strict conditions 
that I have to abide by otherwise I pay the price.

Now I have the mandate to publicly treat all the diseases on condition 
that the patient will be treated publicly. In fact, the first and the 
most important condition is that the person must be diagnosed by a 
medical practitioner or a medical institution. I am not authorised to 
treat anybody who just feels sick without a doctor’s confirmation. 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. After the treatment, they have to go to the 
RVTH for a test again. As I said, I will not treat anybody who is not 
diagnosed as asthmatic or a HIV/Aids patient by a doctor. I don’t want 
to give my medicine to a wrong person.” So the reason why I called you 
is that I have to work with a team of doctors that I can trust. Doctors 
who will not sabotage my treatment. That does not in anyway mean that I 
will give them the medicine. These doctors would make sure that the 
patients abide by the instructions. If I give you the medicine with 
instructions on how to go about it and you go and do something contrary 
to that and you turn out to be positive ,don’t blame me. I will not give 
you names but it is true. It is not a treatment that I speculate on. I 
am not doing it for money or popularity. 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. There is nothing I can do about it and if I go beyond that I 
will have to pay the price.

For asthma, I have to choose between Saturday and Friday. I am also not 
authorised to treat more than 100 people. I am also not authorised to 
treat anybody who does not produce a diagnostic paper of asthma or 
HIV/Aids. One will asked what the Cuban and Taiwanese ambassadors are 
doing here. The aim is to share the treatment with them because in 
Taiwan traditional medicine are used. The asthma medicine can be mass 
produced and packaged and exported to them. The one on HIV/Aids cannot 
be mass produced because I am restricted to ten patients only on every 
Thursday and I cannot go beyond that. I want to have a team of three 
doctors for asthma and HIV/Aids. I want you to select ten HIV/Aids 
patients: five males and five females for Thursday.

The conditions should be explained to them before they come because if 
any of them backs out, you cannot replace the one that has backed out. 
They can eat before coming but they should not eat anything that is 
oily. The medicine will be given to them in the morning as a preliminary 
and after, they can eat and in the evening they take it again. Once that 
is done, they cannot eat anything else the following morning. They may 
be hungry and thirsty but they have to bear it and that is why they need 
a doctor to monitor them. Once they have taken the medicine, they should 
not eat anything no matter what happens till the following day.

Now with regards to asthma treatment, that is the easiest part. When 
they are coming for treatment in the morning, they should not eat 
anything that has pepper or seafood when they take the medicine, for 
four hours they should not eat anything. After that they can eat 
anything except something that contains oil or seafood. We want to see 
how we can work with the RVTH to see where these people can be kept 
until the following morning.With regards to asthma treatment, there is 
no need to keep them. They can go for six months, without taking 
anything that is alcoholic. With regards to HIV/Aids, they should be 
kept at a place that has adequate toilets facilities because they can be 
going to toilet every five minutes.
Anybody who says he will not be treated publicly should stay away 
because I have to fulfill the conditions and I will not take risks for 
anybody.

I am not a witch doctor and in fact you cannot have a witch doctor. You 
are either a witch or a doctor.

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