We’re not aware of AIDS cure breakthrough – UNIBEN

University of Benin on Wednesday distanced itself from Prof. Isaiah Ibeh’s claim that he had found a possible cure for  AIDS.

Reports on Wednesday quoted Ibeh, who is  UNIBEN’s Dean of  Basic Medical Sciences, as saying he had  developed a herbal  drug capable of curing AIDS.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria in Benin on Tuesday that the new drug had undergone “a series of successful tests”. But the Provost, College of Medical Sciences, UNIBEN, Prof. Vincent Iyawe, said the university was unaware of the breakthrough, and would therefore not substantiate it until procedures for verifying such were concluded.

Iyawe said, “The school will like to take credit for a breakthrough, but the school cannot align with the breakthrough because the university college was not consulted and the university was not consulted. He didn’t carry anybody along, so, this is the issue. There are protocols and procedures, stage by stage procedures.

“We are going to take it (drug) to the clinical laboratory, we are going to take it to the Federal Ministry of Health because they have a procedure there."

“We’ll probably take it to NAFDAC  because it is a unit or department of the ministry. We’ll take it for clinical trial, and many things we’ll have to do before we can announce that we discovered something."

“In fact,  we  have to take it to the World Health Organisation. So these are the things we are discussing.”

Asked whether Ibeh was unaware of such procedures before going public, Iyawe said, “I don’t know. He can answer that question, but we are not granting a press interview. I said  after we have finished, we can still call you people (media). All we are doing is to protect him.”

However, the provost  was not sure of  how long it could take the university  to verify Ibeh’s claim.

Via Punch