At the recent international conference on AIDS held in Barcelona, Spain, researchers from the Association for the Promotion of Traditional Medicine (Prometra) announced the results of a trial study of the effects of METRAFAIDS, an herbal preparation made from five different traditionally used plants, on AIDS patients. The researchers found that 70 percent of the 62 patients involved in the study had lower viral loads and significantly higher levels of disease-fighting CD4 cells after being treated with the drug. Prometra is an African research and treatment center based in Senegal focusing on the potential of traditional medicines and treatments in battling diseases. Dr. Erick Gbodossou, Prometra’s director and leader of the research team, said that the plants used are easy to harvest and indigenous to many forested regions of Africa, especially West Africa. METRAFAIDS has no apparent side effects. Prometra hopes to conduct another year of studies before attempting to bring the drug to the market. According to U.N. figures, 28.5 million Africans are HIV-positive; at least a third of all adults in Botswana and Zimbabwe are infected./p>
