MAXIMUM

KERICHO GROUP

 

                                                                                        

          The Kericho patients in the instant case series received the herbal remedy in tea form.  A few patients obtained some lab tests from the Walter Reed ARV Treatment Program which is associated with Kericho District Hospital, and so their HIV-positive status and laboratory reports were documented.  Some of these patients have agreed to be interviewed on video.   Other patients were referred directly by VCT Centers in Kericho County.  Therefore, their HIV screening reports, which were confidential, cannot be divulged by the referring institutions.

 

          Once on the herbal remedy, almost of the patients improved clinically, and a few turned HIV-negative.  As early as 2005, a few patients out of a small group were rumored to have turned HIV-negative.

 

       By 2007, there were approximately 500 patients in the Kericho group, but they were dispersed in the 2007 Kenyan post-election-violence.  Many patients had to interrupt treatment due to the mini-civil war in the region.   At that time the number known to have turned HIV-negative was around 20.  A few of these patients agreed to be interviewed and retested in 2009 for a follow-up investigation, and also participated in subsequent phone-call follow-ups.  As of January 2014, Bernard Ngeno, the herbalist who dispenses the herbal remedy in Kericho, (Prof. Paul Chepkwony is now the Governor of Kericho County) claimed that there are around 187 patients who have turned HIV-negative out of 700 patients who he has treated since 2005.  

 

          The Kericho herbal clinic has been supported by the occasional donations from well-wishers.  The clinic closed several times because of the lack of funding, and the documentation of the results from this remote setting is not as extensive as the later ones from the two case series in Nairobi.

 

          However, the case reports below are of patients originating from the Kericho series whom this author, Maria Medina, met between 2005 to 2009.  This author has personally seen them get screened when they were HIV-positive, and I have been able to track the course of their therapy.  These individuals have agreed to be interviewed at any time that their evidence is needed.

 

 

       [Case 1A] A.C., a 35 year-old business woman, was first tested positive for HIV infection in February of 2006 in Muhoroni Hospital in Kisumu. Patient was not ill when diagnosed and just wanted to know HIV status at that time.  She started her herbal treatment right after being diagnosed.

 

          The figures below are verbal reports of her CD4 from Walter Reed ARVs Program. The Walter Reed ARV Program does not routinely give printed reports of laboratory tests, so most patients just remember what they are told by the medical personnel.