President of Gambia Cures AIDS

Congratulations to the President of Gambia for going insane and convincing his own people to let themselves die:

From the pockets of his billowing white robe, Gambia's president pulls out a plastic container, closes his eyes in prayer and rubs a green herbal paste into the ribcage of his patient.

He then orders the thin man to swallow a bitter yellow drink, followed by two bananas.

"Whatever you do there are bound to be skeptics, but I can tell you my method is foolproof," Yahya Jammeh says, surrounded by his bodyguards inside his presidential compound as he prepares to treat more patients.

"Mine is not an argument, mine is a proof. It's a declaration. I can cure AIDS and I will."

In a continent suffering from the world's worst AIDS epidemic, claims of miracle cures like those of Jammeh are alarming public health workers already struggling against the corrosive effect of faith-healers dispensing herbal remedies from thatched huts.

The biggest concern to experts is that Jammeh requires his patients to cease their anti-retroviral drugs, a dangerous move since doing so can weaken the body's immune system, making the patient prone to infection, said Dr. Antonio Filipe Jr., the local head of the World Health Organization in neighboring Senegal.

Since January, when he announced his cure to a gathering of foreign diplomats, Jammeh has thrown the bureaucratic machinery of his small West African country behind his claim of a cure.

First Iran, then Gambia. Who's going to cure AIDS next?