A major breakthrough in the cure for HIV/AIDS has been recorded by Maduike Ezeibe, a professor of Veterinary Medicine and Clinical Virology at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, in Abia State.
The Vice-Chancellor, VC, of the institution, Prof. Francis Otunta who announced the breakthrough at the university campus on Wednesday that Ezeibe produced the drug after years of scientific research. He explained that Ezeibe had presented the drug to the University management, Senate and Council, where he explained the processes he went through to arrive at his finding.The VC also stated that the researcher had equally presented the drug to his colleagues in the medical field and nobody had contradicted his finding.
Otunta said that the university was in the process of mass producing the drug for further clinical trials on persons living with HIV/AIDS in the country.
Ezeibe said that the drug was produced with Aluminum Silicate and Magnesium Silicate (Synthetic Aluminum-Magnesium Silicate). He stated that the two minerals “are already in use as medicines for the treatment of various animal and human diseases”.
The researcher said 10 persons living with the disease, “who volunteered’’, were made to apply through their doctor to the VC, disclosing that “they were treated daily with the Medicinal Synthetic Aluminum-Magnesium Silicate (50 mg/kg).” He explained that the volunteers were subjected to monthly tests for viral loads and CD4-lymphocyte counts. “With the antiviral effects of the medicine, its ability to reach all cells (as nanoparticles) and the lymphocytes, there is no more hiding place (sanctuary) for HIV,” he said.
Ezeibe said that it could be a major foreign exchange earner for Nigeria, if approved by relevant authorities. “Local and international pharmaceutical companies would find the product as a veritable raw material,” he said.
Ezeibe said that he presented the research findings to the World Virology Conference in Atlanta in 2015, and Antonio (Texas) in 2016. According to him, the results of the laboratory tests had been published in many international scientific journals, including the British Journal of Medicine and Medical Research, among several others.
He said that he was also about to sign a memorandum of understanding with a U.S.-based Scientific Research Publishing, publishers of World Journal of AIDS, for the publication of his book “How I came about the cure for HIV/AIDS”.
The researcher, who disclosed that the medicine was patented in August 2014 in Nigeria, called on the Federal Government to help him to secure international patency for the drug. “If commercialised, the Medicinal Synthetic Aluminum-Magnesium Silicate would become an alternative for petroleum to the Nigerian economy,” Ezeibe said.