Advances in Hiv Herbal Research: Successes/Adverse Effects

An estimated number of 33.4 million people around the world are said to be living with HIV with more than twenty-five million deaths due to AIDS-related diseases recorded since the beginning of the epidemic. Complete cure for the disease has been diligently pursued by scientists around the world, but there has been no report of absolute success while the highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) remains the only current treatment modality. This treatment guideline, though very effective in suppressing replication of the virus and reducing the mortality of HIV/AIDS patients, it does not offer an ultimate cure to the disease. This realization, coupled with other side effects associated with the drug including failure of HIV vaccines and microbiocides, have urgently called for the need to develop inexpensive alternative anti-HIV/AIDS therapies. In the search for drugs and new cures for human and animal ailments, medicinal plants are definitely the most popular targets and Nigeria is endowed with a variety of these that could serve as veritable alternatives in the management of HIV/AIDS. Efforts are however required to determine the safety; efficacy and pharmacological profile of many of the herbal compounds with a view to fully understanding what remedies are in use for HIV and to educate those providing alternative medical services against unsafe practices.