Prophet Magaya is now an HIV/Aids Scientist

According to Prophet Magaya, the HIV/Aids cure is now found as well as the cure for cancer related diseases. I am neither writing this piece to disprove the claim of prophet Magaya nor approving it. I want to inform the public that Prophet Magaya and team may have violated international code of ethics on conducting and disseminating research findings. I also blame the media for giving Prophet Magaya an over coverage on a claim that is difficult to scientifically verify.
 
The claim that he has found an HIV/Aids cure will make or break the career of the prophet in the near future. Prophet Magaya should have learned a lesson from Rotina Mavhunga, she was later jailed for abusing scientific code of ethics on diesel processing. It is beyond scientific verification that a rock can produce diesel from the blues. The studies on HIV/Aids cure are too complicated and need a strong empirical process to be accomplished. It is true in my belief that HIV/Aids was not created by God but it was a creation of human beings. Therefore, is the duty of people to clear their mess and not God.

The presser of prophet Magaya was inadequate and failed to convince the majority of us about his breakthrough. The scientific methodology employed by prophet Magaya and team is not convincing. He said that the experiment was done in two years, trials were done with HIV patients and that he had a team of Indian scientists. Handling an experimental design in research is a bit complicated and prophet Magaya and team should demonstrate such by showing us the letters of approval to conduct an experimental research (with humans) from the right/responsible bodies in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Conducting experiments with humans is more dangerous than conducting with non-humans. Prophet Magaya should produce the consent agreement forms signed between his team and the HIV/Aids Patients   to the responsible bodies for clarification. There are chances that, prophet Magaya did an experiment with humans without observing ethical codes of conduct. It is immoral and evil to give patients trial drugs without signing consent agreement forms and getting permission in writing from the ministry of health.

For the best interest of Zimbabweans, I am calling upon the ministries of health in Zimbabwe and Mozambique to confirm that prophet Magaya and his Indian team were given a go-ahead to conduct their experiment with humans. Out of the people who were involved in such experiment, prophet Magaya should give us their demographic characteristics i.e. gender, nationality, CD count etc. If prophet Magaya is not going to produce all these, it means Zimbabwe is a rouge state where there is no rule of law. Prophet Magaya should tell us about deaths (occurred during the experiment) if any. Conducting experiments with humans should be done after following laid down procedures, this is done to avoid deaths and abuse of humans. We should not forget what happened to the Syphilis Tuskegee in USA where abuses of black Americans  were reported in the name of an experimental study.

Prophet Magaya should have asked for advise on how scientific research results are disseminated. The researcher should take responsibility of any commotion or mishaps that may be a result of his/her publication. It is possible that some HIV/Aids patients may stop taking their antiretroviral therapy because of Prophet Magaya's announcement. If that is going to happen, it means, the announcement of Prophet Magaya may cause a lot of deaths in the near future and people/organizations shall be calling for prophet Magaya to take such responsibility.
 
I therefore want to take this opportunity to politely request prophet Magaya to recant his announcement for the best interest of HIV/Aids patients in Zimbabwe. I was shocked to hear prophet Magaya on media saying that the business of antiretroviral drugs must stop and become history, the statement is treasonous and the law enforcing agencies should arrest the prophet.

Conclusion
I am now calling upon police commissioner Charity Charamba to summon prophet Magaya to the police station within 24 hours and order his team to bring the following;
a)    Official latters from the ministries of health in Zimbabwe and Mozambique allowing him to conduct an experiment with humans
b)    Proof and names of agencies that fund his experimental research
c)    A proposal submitted to the ministries of health in Zimbabwe and Mozambique requesting them to experiment with humans
d)    The academic credentials of the research team from India
e)    A detailed report of what transpired to subjects that were part of the study
f)    A proof that they signed a consent agreement with the subjects that were part of the study
g)    The registration details of the institution that prophet Magaya used to conduct his experiment
h)    Any other information proving that the experiment with humans was done above board


Please to all those people close to President ED Mnangagwa, Minister of health, Police Commissioner Charity Charamba, Rotina Mavhunga and Prophet Magaya, may you please forward this piece to them. It is our obligation as citizens to make sure that Prophet Magaya is brought to justice for violating ethics of conducting experiment with humans.
I believe that there were no subjects who died during the experiment.

Don Chigumba is a mixed methods research specialist can be found on twitter @Donchigumba