Prof. Isaiah Ibeh of the University of Benin, on Tuesday
announced the development of a new drug that can cure HIV and AIDS.
Ibeh, who is the Dean of the School of Basic Medical
Sciences of the university, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin that
the herbal drug had undergone ``series of successful tests''. ``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 seems 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.’’
According to him, research on the project was 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.''
Ibeh also said that the drug had been exposed to series of
medical examination both in Nigeria and in the USA. He added that the drug had
performed well on patients with the HIV virus and had shown evidence of total
restoration of damaged tissues.
``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 said that further tests were being conducted to determine
``at what point will a patient become negative after being administered the
drug?''.
``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.’’
Ibeh appealed for
support from the Federal Government and relevant bodies to assist the
university with relevant equipment to sustain the research.
source: NAN