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Kenread is a social media site devoted to content from Kenya. Kenread has the privilege of having as one of its members Dr. Simon Situma Barasa, a pharmacologist who lectures at Technical University, Nairobi, Kenya.
Dr. Simon Situma Barasa is familiar to Kenyans who read Kenya's local Newspapers. Dr. Barasa featured prominently in the News after the announcement of the cure of five HIV-positive patients by building on the work that led to the cure of Timothy Ray Brown, The Berlin Patient, the only person in the world currently recognized as having being cured of AIDS.
Despite the fact that Dr. Barasa had a published peer-reviewed scientific paper that announced the cure of the first two of those five patients, when the Kenya Press reported his documented success including the verification of results by three independent medical laboratories, it elicited heavy criticism. Most of it was unjustified. However, one valid point that was made is that five patients may be a figure too low to confirm a cure. A higher sample size is required.
The purpose of this page is to assist Dr. Barasa in recruiting HIV/AIDs patients into a larger scale trial to confirm that a cure for AIDs has indeed been found, and that the cure of the five AIDs patients (a major feat in itself) was not an isolated incident.
Dr. Barasa is of the opinion that the reasoning provided behind Timothy Ray Brown's cure is incomplete. The reasoning given by Timothy Ray Brown's doctors is that a gene resistant to HIV was introduced into his body during treatment for leukaemia.
Dr. Barasa believes that the more complete answer lies in the fact that the HIV virus requires the environmental conditions found only in the bone marrow to reproduce. If you disturb these ideal conditions, you interfere with the HIV-virus' ability to reproduce. If you are able to maintain this state of the HIV virus' inability to reproduce, and take extra medication to kill off the remaining live virus, the patient will be cured of AIDs.
For readers from Kenya, Dr. Barasa's theory is similar to the concept of preventing the spread of malaria by spraying oil on stagnant pools of water or draining pools in which mosquitoes can lay their eggs. The pool of water can be likened to the bone marrow. Mosquito larvae require stagnant water to reproduce. If you can prevent mosquito larvae from breeding, either by draining the pools of water or spraying oil so that they cannot breathe, the mosquitoes will be unable to reproduce, and you can thus prevent the spread of malaria. Dr. Barasa's reasoning is that the 'pool of water' for the HIV-virus to 'lay its eggs' is the bone marrow.
For readers in countries where malaria is not common, a better analogy may be the division of labour of bees in a colony. Only queen bees can reproduce. They also require the environmental conditions provided in the inmost parts of a bee hive. They normally do not leave the hive. On the other hand, worker bees that gather nectar fly up to a few kilometres away from a hive. However, they are biologically unable to reproduce. Dr. Barasa's theory can be thought of as the HIV virus behaving like a bee. In the bone marrow, the HIV virus behaves like a queen bee, and reproduces rapidly there. Outside the bone marrow, the HIV virus behaves like a worker bee, and cannot reproduce there.
Dr. Barasa believes that the removal of Timothy Ray Brown's bone marrow in preparation for the surgery to treat his leukaemia interfered with the HIV-virus' ability to reproduce. The continued use of antiretroviral medication for about a year then killed off the remaining virus, and thus effected the cure.
In the five patients that were cured of AIDs, Dr. Barasa interfered with the HIV-virus' ability to reproduce by using the bone-marrow cancer drug Methotrexate. This prevents CD4 cells from replicating, denying the HIV virus a chance to reproduce, because the HIV virus depends on the reproduction of CD4 cells to be able to replicate. Along with the cancer medication that prevented an increase of HIV virus in the body, he then provided a cocktail of medication that killed the HIV virus. And thus the cures were effected.
This is the same concept that Dr. Barasa is recruiting patients to undertake.
NOTE:
It should be noted that some of Dr. Barasa's patients were tested to have undetectable levels of the HIV virus in less than three months (in some cases, eight to ten weeks) after starting his treatment. However, given that AIDS is a general term for a group of diseases, depending on the severity of the case, not all cases may yield an HIV cured/HIV free status within the same time frame. Timothy Ray Brown continued to take his HIV/AIDs medication for approximately a year after the surgery to treat his leukaemia. So a person choosing to participate in the trials should have realistic expectations.
March 2nd 2014: Dr. Barasa reports that a further forty patients successfully completed his cure treatment on the 28th of February 2014, and that monitoring is underway to confirm long term HIV-cured/HIV-free status. More information to follow. Please visit Dr. Barasa's profile on Kenread for the latest updates from him. Dr. Barasa's username on Kenread is simonsituma
June 24th 2015: Dr. Barasa reports there are now 61 patients whose levels of HIV are undetectable, and that even though they are technically cured, monitoring is still continuing.
Kenread would love to have participants of the large scale trial journal their journey from HIV-positive to HIV-cured/HIV-free using Dr. Barasa's technique. The whole world would love to celebrate your new found health with you.
Many people do not like to use their real names on social media platforms. You do not have to use your real name. Create a username using a nickname you wish to be known as. Then pass your nickname on to Dr. Barasa or the organization that sponsors your treatment. A web page with usernames of users whose cures have been confirmed will be added to the site with time, giving either Dr. Barasa or the sponsoring organization as the source of the confirmation of the cure.
Members of the Kenread site should note that Kenread does not store email or IP information - you only require a username to use this site. However, Kenread cannot take liability if an agency or organization analyzes web site traffic to view a source computer. If protecting your IP address information is important, it is suggested that you post content from a source such as an Internet café.
A web page will be created in which the usernames of participants of the trial whose cure is confirmed by Dr. Barasa, or validated by a sponsoring organization, will be listed.
For example, if a pharmacy sponsors one of its customers, the username on Kenread of the trial participant will be posted, along with an entry with the name of the sponsoring pharmacy as the source of confirmation.
An organization will be required to provide the name of the participant or a unique receipt number of the participant for verification with Dr. Barasa. Credit for the confirmation, however, will be given to the organization, as it may be a means of advertising to recoup the cost of the treatment of the patient.
PLEASE NOTE, SOME REQUESTS BY CERTAIN ORGANIZATIONS TO BE LISTED MAY BE DENIED, AND LISTING IS NOT A GURANTEED RIGHT. NO REASON WILL BE GIVEN IF IT IS DECIDED NOT TO LIST THE SPONSORING ORGANIZATION.
To apply to participate in the trials, please visit the contact page on Kenread and send a message, choosing Clinical Trials as the subject. Please remember to include contact information, as most fields in the form are optional. The contact form is at www.kenread.com/contact.html
If you are part of a medical organization and received an invitation message, you can apply by responding to the message.
The reader may find the following links of interest