---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Iruka Okeke
Date: Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: [nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists] UNIBEN Prof announces alleged cure for HIV/AIDS
To: nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk
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From: Iruka Okeke
Date: Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: [nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists] UNIBEN Prof announces alleged cure for HIV/AIDS
To: nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk
One of the best responses so far I think. It is not that we will not. We CAN NOT evaluate this or similar discoveries from information in a newspaper like this simply because we can't see the data. The advantage of directing the responsibility of validating discoveries to ones peers is that they have similar knowledgebases as the discoverer and comprise a community to which he/she can be accountable. They can also request and judge primary data. Breakthroughs will always be published in the media but the best science reporters use peer validation to estimate the quality of a find. I read of discoveries in the popular press all the time but where it is important for me to dig deep, I always go back to the primary paper or patent. Regulatory bodies don't always depend on peer review to assist them but they value it when it is there. Peer review does not always work (eg in the example attached) but one gets a little queasy when it is not discussed. In the end, we want the best discoveries properly evaluated because this is the only way patients will be able to access them. Primary health care providers can only prescribe medications that have been validated.
As some earlier posts have suggested, this reminds us of previous 'discoveries' that have, in the end, not benefited our people. Social scientist Ebenezer Obadare have used this as a metaphor to illustrate the dangers of alternate routes to validation. See attached. And it is not just a Nigerian issue. If this sort of stuff interests you, read the book 'Bad Science' by Britain's Ben Goldacre
Iruka
On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 4:06 PM, Oyewale Tomori <oyewaletomori@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear BrotherThank you very much for your comments. We live here and have seen how our people take in newspaper claims without questioning. One of us has referred to the numerous cure claims made by our "experts" on the pages of newspaper, and how they become rich on the death of poor Nigerian who flocked to receive their death sentences.
By the time the Prof "proves" himself, some other charlatan Profs, would have taken advantage of his "discovery" and made money while dishing death sentences to the gullible.Our newspapers, TV and radio stations, sponsor and disseminate these "unproven" discoveries, making our people believe the "discoveries" are genuine, and sending them to their graves.
We live in a largely uneducated nation, and we the so called educated have an obligation to be the light and the voice of our very vulnerable people, and take absolute care of what we say or what is said in our name.This is why we are talking, not because we want to bash anyone.I did not see any adverse comments on Prof Maurice Iwu's reported association with a major discovery, even though we have not forgotten his performance in previous electionsRegardsOyewaleOyewale TomoriRedeemer's University, Redemption Camp,Km. 46 Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun StateP. O. Box 7914, Ikeja, Lagos Statewebsite:www.run.edu.ng
From: "ekanini@yahoo.com" <ekanini@yahoo.com>
To: nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk
Sent: Tuesday, January 8, 2013 8:10 PM
Subject: Re: [nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists] UNIBEN Prof announces alleged cure for HIV/AIDS
Before we become negative let's give the Prof some time to prove themselves. I am tired of negativity coming from ourselves. How can we match forward, if at the end of the day it does not work well it will be bad science. We should ask the Prof for further evidence if in doubt. No science is perfect, that is why it is a continuum. I don't think UNIBEN will host a press conference without little knowledge of what they are saying.
Please let's start giving ourselves some positive image this year. We have bashed ourselves so much, that I wonder whether the colonial mentality has made it difficult for us to believe in ourselves.
I rest my case. If the Prof is wrong in their claim, time will tell. I live in the west and constantly claims are made and retracted without the whole country/ scientific community bashing the claimants in some cases. So please let's celebrate ourselves and stop washing our dirty linens in the public. Outsiders judges us on how we portray ourselves. Nigeria is this Nigeria is that, Haba when will Nigeria be.
Many thanks all.Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2From: "Dr Kabir Adekunle Durowade" <kadurowade@yahoo.com>Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2013 18:57:11 +0000To: nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk<nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk>Subject: Re: [nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists] UNIBEN Prof announces alleged cure for HIV/AIDSThis made me remember the Abalaka saga! I hope this will not end up the same way. Time will tell.Dr Kabir Adekunle Durowade
B.Sc(Hons),MB;BS, MPH, FWACP
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless
device from MTNFrom: "Shittu, Aminu" <ameen_vet@yahoo.com>Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2013 09:24:18 -0800 (PST)To: nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk<nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk>Subject: Re: [nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists] UNIBEN Prof announces alleged cure for HIV/AIDSBetter in Nature news. African science is re-emerging!a
From: M .S. ABUBAKAR <msabuus@yahoo.com>
To: nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk
Sent: Tuesday, January 8, 2013 5:17:06 PM
Subject: Re: [nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists] UNIBEN Prof announces alleged cure for HIV/AIDS
Wondering why Prof. Isaiah Ibeh opt for vanguard news paper, instead of filing patent!!!
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M.S. ABUBAKAR
Department of Veterinary Pathology | Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto | P.M. B 2346, Sokoto-NigeriaE-mail: msabuus@yahoo.com (personal) | msabubakar@udusok.edu.ng (official)
Research Interest: Mechanisms of Microbial Pathogenesis and Mucosal Immune Response
--- On Tue, 1/8/13, Abdullahi Dahiru <abdullahidahiru@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
From: Abdullahi Dahiru <abdullahidahiru@hotmail.co.uk>
Subject: [nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists] UNIBEN Prof announces alleged cure for HIV/AIDS
To: "ABU medical alumni" <abufacmedalumni@yahoogroups.com>, "Nigerian biomedical and life scientists" <nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk>
Date: Tuesday, January 8, 2013, 9:11 AMBenin – Prof. Isaiah Ibeh of the University of Benin, on Tuesday announced the development of a new drug that can allegedly 'cure' HIV and AIDS. Ibeh, who is the Dean of the School of Basic Medical Sciences of the university, told reporters in Benin that the herbal drug had undergone "series of successful tests".He said "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.File photo: A rally to mark HIV/Aids Day."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.(NAN)
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Iruka N. Okeke
Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology
Department of Biology, Haverford College
370 Lancaster Avenue
Haverford, PA 19041, USA
Tel +1 610 896 1470, Fax +1 610 896 4963
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