Goats Hold the Cure to AIDS

Laboratory tests in Ghana have proved the efficacy of the BB7075 serum (also known as the Goat Serum) in suppressing and neutralizing HIV-2 in goats. This breakthrough implies that when the serum is extracted and purified, it can be used for the suppression and prevention of HIV/AIDS in humans. — Daily Graphic, Ghana, September 6, 2005

Front page of Ghana's Daily Graphic, September 6, 2005

Ghana's premier newspaper touched off a firestorm earlier this month by declaring "hope for HIV/AIDS persons" and announcing the results of recent clinical tests into the so-called "Goat Serum." While proclamations from individuals declaring local cures for AIDS are not uncommon in West Africa, the front-page publicity generated by the Daily Graphic is somewhat unique. The research in question was carried out by the Nogouchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana, and Grace Eureka Biomedical Research Products.

"The aim of the research was to immunize a goat, using a combination of HIV-1 and 2 strains, to test [for] HIV neutralizing anti-bodies in the goat serum and then test for the HIV serological status of the serum," explained Daily Graphic writer Joe Bradford Nyinah.

Dr. Susu Bridget Kwawukume, the Clinical and Scientific Research Co-coordinator for Grace Eureka Biomedical Research Products, revealed that "HIV-2 antibodies were induced in the goat as early as three weeks after the virus inoculation," and that "HIV-2 inhibition was seen six weeks after the serum was taken." While they were not able to induce HIV-1 antibodies, Dr. Kwawukume expressed hope that this would be overcome as the strains are very similar in nature.

Following this announcement, the Ghana AIDS Commission hastily organized a press conference and radio interviews, aggressively attacking the findings. Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoah specifically criticized the announcement as offering a "false hope" and claimed that the publication of such encouraging news would push people towards greater sexual promiscuity. With countless local sham artists hawking worthless herbal medicines or spiritual cures to HIV/AIDS, the Ghana AIDS Commission's aggressive response was understandable, if not justified.

Goat Serum cartoon from Daily Graphic

Over the following days, countless local pundits joined the debate, infusing it with regional religious values and popular morality. George Sydney Abugri, in his popular "Letter to Jomo" column, offered a political twist: "The last time someone here (Nana Drobo) announced amid a blaze of local and international publicity, that he had found a cure for HIV/AIDS, he was soon after found dead in the bush, with a bullet lodged somewhere in his royal anatomy. Detectives claimed he shot himself. His claims had before then, led him on apparent misadventures to Japan to meet Japanese scientists. He subsequently fled that country in mysterious circumstances, returning home and to his death. That is how delicate a subject research into a cure for HIV/AIDS has become."

Commentators like Aburgi highlighted a common belief that some international drug companies actively suppress research into nontraditional treatments and cures for HIV/AIDS. Ten days after he first broke the story in the Daily Observer, Nyinah responded to the hysteria, stating that "All over the world the AIDS matter has become an issue of great commercial interest that the big multinational pharmaceuticals companies and their agents across the globe would do anything and everything to protect. Most development experts liken the AIDS business to the Development Merchant System. It has a wide range of tentacles that reach across the globe protecting interest even at the cost of people dying."

However, in the case of the Goat Serum, Nyinah implied that it was more likely a case of professional jealousy that sparked the debate, noting the "ineffective backtracking that the Research Coordinator (Ghana AIDS Commission) has effeminately embarked on." While they did not formally retract their suspicions about the Goat Serum, the Ghana AIDS Commission backpedaled slightly, softening their initial criticisms.

Responding to the Ghana AIDS Commission, Professor Nana Kofi Ayisi, the lead scientist conducting research into the Goat Serum, "urged the nation and its people to encourage more work on the finds so far made on the Goat Serum instead of frustrating the researchers who are working so hard to contribute knowledge."


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