SICKENING

‘I Could Have Lost My Life’: Gambians Sue Ex-Leader for Alleged HIV ‘Cure’

"My experience in the presidential treatment program was a horror," one patient said.

Three Gambians, allegedly survivors of a dangerous HIV treatment program, are suing former leader Yahya Jammeh for suffering under his mandatory regimen, reports The New York Times. The lawsuit claims that Jammeh forced HIV-positive Gambians into a treatment program that required them to forgo antiretroviral therapy in lieu of herbal concoctions that “made them violently ill,” and that some treatment sessions were broadcast on national television without their consent. The Times reports that around 1,000 people were subjected to the treatment before the program was shuttered, and two patients died. Sarah Bosha, a legal research and policy associate at AIDS-Free World, told the Times that the program was "the most egregious premeditated assault on people living with HIV and AIDS in the history of the global AIDS crisis."