ABUJA, 24 August. - (ANA) - Aisha* once relied on free antiretroviral therapy (ART) from a clinic in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, funded through the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme. The treatment kept her HIV suppressed.

 

That changed when US President Donald Trump ordered a halt to PEPFAR funding in January 2025.

 

“When I went to the facility and was told the drugs were no longer available for free, my heart sank because I couldn’t afford to pay for them out of pocket,” Aisha told SciDev.Net.

 

Although PEPFAR partially resumed its activities in February 2025, the programme was subject to significant budget cuts. A study by AIDS research foundation amfAR found that at least 1,714 HIV service sites globally closed entirely after terminated or delayed PEPFAR payments and almost none could replace lost funding.

 

Facing donor stockouts and financial barriers, Aishia and other HIV patients across northern Nigeria, Niger and Chad have been abandoning proven ART for unregulated alternatives marketed locally under the guise of so-called “Islamic medicine”, SciDev.Net reporting found.

 

“When someone talked to me about a traditional healer whose medicine could cure the virus permanently after just one treatment, I decided to sell my household furniture to buy it,” explained Aisha, recalling the healer’s unfounded claims.

 

Her desperation reflects a growing trend across northern Nigerian urban centres such as Kano, Bauchi, Gombe and Maiduguri, where alternative health practitioners are filling the treatment void left by the funding cuts.

 

Operating through offline community networks and social media channels, some of these practitioners market herbal concoctions, promising a total cure in a few months through a one-off purchase of their products.

 

Globally, PEPFAR has invested over US$100 billion in the fight against HIV/AIDS since 2003, supporting antiretroviral treatment for more than 20 million people in over 50 countries.

 

In Nigeria, PEPFAR has disbursed over US$7.8 billion to provide more than 1.9 million people with access to ART, in a country with the fourth-largest HIV burden globally after South Africa, Mozambique and India.

 

But the US aid freezes created an opportunity for healers pedalling untested treatments.

 

 

 

 

Research on therapeutic choices in Kano show how passages from classical texts on prophetic medicine are cited by both traditional healers and patients.

 

Mainstream Islamic scholars strongly insist that this is a form of commercial exploitation of the Islamic texts.

 

“Selling ineffective remedies that don’t perform the functions claimed is an act of deception strictly forbidden by Allah,” explains Muhammad Mahmud Mustapha, an Islamic scholar based in Kano.

 

“Anyone who falls victim to this fraud has a religious right to demand accountability for their stolen wealth and their endangered health.”

 

Mustapha stressed that the Hadith used by these healers is a mandate for formal scientific research, not a license for unregulated commercialism.

 

Aisha, who saw no improvement in her health after relying on the herbal remedies for two months, said her symptoms began to return, with her body growing weaker.

 

“I realised I had spent everything I owned on empty promises while the virus was multiplying inside me,” she said.

 

Now, she faces the added burden of paying out of pocket for consultations, routine viral load tests and clinic administration fees, expenses that used to be fully covered.

 

*Real name withheld to protect anonymity.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/24 August 2026 - - -