Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 17, 2006
Belinda Beresford
Ubhejane Immune Booster hit the news recently when Tshabalala-Msimang reportedly recommended use of the substance, a concoction of more than 80 herbs that has yet to undergo clinical testing on human beings. Aids activists also say the mixture is being given out at state clinics in Durban.
At the same time, a scientist researching ubhejane has criticised as "mischievous" media reports that he had found it effective in treating Aids. Dr Nceba Gqaleni, the deputy dean of the University of KwaZulu-Natal's (UKZN) Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, said he was distressed by the publicity. "Is it for marketing or is it to help?" he asked.
Reports indicate that the Pinetown offices of ubejhane's main purveyor in KwaZulu-Natal, Zebon Gwala, are besieged by sick people, who are allegedly told that it cures Aids.
According to an anonymous letter to the Mail & Guardian, they are also told to stop taking their anti-retroviral drugs while trying it - a potentially dangerous step, as it can lead to drug resistance.
Members of the Democratic Alliance have laid charges of fraud and contravention of legislation regulating the safety and efficacy of medicines against Gwala. Pinetown police said they were waiting for advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions on how to proceed with the charges.
The DA's health spokesperson, Dianne Kohler-Barnard, and two colleagues have accused Gwala of breaching the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act by claiming his remedy can cure Aids. Gwala could not be contacted for comment this week.
The letter sent to the M&G from Durban this week quoted "a man selling ubhejane in KwaZulu-Natal" as saying the product had been approved by the minister of health. Yet Tshabalala-Msimang's spokesperson, Sibani Mngadi, insisted this week that the minister had not endorsed the mixture. Rather, she had expressed interest and enthusiasm about further research into the herbal brew, after hearing about preliminary laboratory work suggesting it might have an anti-microbial effect.
Mngadi also said Gwala had not claimed to the minister that his concoction could cure Aids, merely that it could give some benefit to users. He said he knew nothing of Treatment Action Campaign claims that ubhejane was being distributed at two state clinics in KwaZulu-Natal.
Gqaleni said preliminary tests had indicated some antibiotic effect, which might be of use in treating the opportunistic infections that plague HIV-positive people.
But he said the private report he gave to Gwala on these findings had been leaked and misinterpreted. Newspaper reports appeared to imply that his research was nearly complete, while he had not yet tested ubhejane's effect on HIV in a laboratory and it would be at least six months before any work is done on humans.
Preliminary indications that the mixture had no obvious toxicities did not necessarily mean it was safe, said Francois Venter, head of the HIV Clinicians Society of Southern Africa. "Lots of things kill HIV in a petri dish, but it is harder to find things that kill HIV in a human, without killing the human."
One person who has enthusiastically promoted Gqaleni's preliminary report is UKZN sociology professor Herberzt Vilakazi, "special adviser" to KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele. Vilakazi is a vehement proponent of traditional medicine and a critic of "Western science". He has cited two products used by traditional healers he says appear to be "safe and effective" - one being ubhejane.
In his work, Vilakazi said two scientists "have also noted the remarkable changes in CD-4 and viral load [sic] test results of patients with full-blown Aids who were taking ubhejane". However, one of the scientists named in the document denied finding such results.
In 2004, at a conference on traditional medicines in Benoni, Vilakazi said the health minister had urged the Medical Research Council to formulate research on the herbal concoction.
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