Zambia-03 May 2010-(HealthDeb.net)-Crocodile fat is increasingly being sold as a cure for HIV and a replacement for antiretrovirals (ARVs) for people living with HIV in Zambia.

On 16th March, 2010, I had the chance of visiting one such trader of the commodity her place in Kanyama Compound of Lusaka District.

She goes by the name of “Bo J” (not her real name) and hails from Mongu District in Western Province. I went there under the pretext of wanting to buy her product.

I received a warm welcome and she told me that she has been in this business for one year now.

The trader claimed that her clients, who were using crocodile fats as treatment, had been cured of the disease.

“I know people that are taking crocodile fats instead of ARVs and are responding well to treatment, except I can not reveal their names. So apart from ARVs, the crocodile fats can also cure HIV and AIDS” she said.

She also stated that the crocodile fat is able to restore the health in HIV-positive persons by boosting their immunity and reversing some infection conditions. All this, she said, can be done, in the absence of ARVs.

She boasted that the medicine was effective and that people living with HIV were responding well to treatment using crocodile fats because it is a ‘medicine’.

Bo J is selling one dose, about one teaspoon's worth, at a cost of Kwacha 50,000 (about US$10).

It would now appear that the whole of Kanyama community is after Crocodile fat, like the one sold by Bo J.

Bo J feels that the Zambia Ministry of Health should consider allowing HIV positive patients to be taking ARVs together with crocodile fats, which she claims to be an equal treatment of HIV/AIDS.

But AIDS is a serious killer so it's best that the Treatment Advocacy & Literacy Campaign (TALC) fight it by taking the bull by its horns by raising awareness around the effectiveness of ARVs, as opposed to phony cures like Crocodile fats sold by Bo J.

Online at http://healthdev.net/site/post.php?s=6609