The Presidential Medical Team Friday evening discharged the sixth batch of HIV/AIDS patients at Kanilai. The batch comprised forty-six patients out of which forty-one were found undetectable of HIV 1, HIV 2, and HIV 1and 2 which results were confirmed by International Laboratory Standards.

Speaking at the occasion, the President Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya AJ J Jammeh thanked Allah the Almighty for showing him the way forward in getting rid of one of the most dreadful diseases (HIV/AIDs) in human history.

He noted that getting rid of the virus is not about vaccination against being re infected and that treating HIV does not mean that the person will not have headache or get sick. He pointed out that what he can guarantee is that those treated will not die from AIDs.

The President advised the in-patients who are married to bring forward their partners who are not treated otherwise if they are re-infected they will not benefit from the treatment again.

He informed that viral loads are measured in calibration. For HIV, he went on, the calibration is 53 copies and for HIV 2 the calibration is 10 copies which he said is the most sensitive PTR machine in the world. He said what was interesting in the intake was that most of them were infected with both HIV 1 and HIV 2. He said for anyone who goes to a hospital to be diagnosed and happens to be HIV 2 positive the virus can be eradicated from his/her system completely in less than three months.

The President pointed out that the objective of his treatment is to totally eliminate the viral load from the individual's system. He said those released have been released because their viral loads are cleared from their system and that for those who have high load a million copies will continue their treatment.

He finally thanked all those who contributed to the success of the treatment whether in cash or kind.

For his part, the Director General of the Presidential Treatment Programmer, Dr Tamsir Mbowe, said since its inception in January 17 2007 thousands and thousands of patients and their respective families have benefited. He underscored His Excellency the President's victory in humanitarian assistance motivated by his endless search for clues, the knowledge, and the power to achieve great results in the treatment of HIV/AIDs, infertility, Asthma, Hyperion and other diseases.

The Director General went further to point out that the absence of effective treatment for a particular disease in modern conventional medicine does not mean that traditional indigenous medicine is confronted with the same predicament. He said you need not be a medical doctor or scientist to understand the effectiveness of His Excellency the President's treatment programme.

Describing President Jammeh, Dr Mbowe said he is not only a visionary leader, but a philanthropist, a servant of the people, a herbalist and a healer of the sick.

He noted that the gains the President registered in traditional medicine will by all means contribute towards elevating traditional medicine to the level of a viable paradigm for not only the treatment of HIV/AIDs, but for asthma, hypertension, infertility and other ailments.

President Jammeh's name, he indicated has already been written in the medical books as the first medical practioner to come up with the medical herbs that have the potency to treat HIV/AIDs.

The Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Alhaji Omar Taal and the Chief Executive of Sulayman Junkung Jammeh Hospital both commended President Jammeh for the efforts he made towards providing better health services to the Gambian people.

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By Alhagi Ceesay