Secondary schooling in Sasse, Cameroon, and Ibadan, Nigeria; University of Ibadan (1948–1950); St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, University of London (1951–1954).
Professor of Surgery, University of Ibadan (1965–1971); Professor of Surgery, Université de Yaoundé (1971–1974); Vice Chancellor, Université de Yaoundé (1974–1982); President of the Association of African Universities (1981–1982); Minister of Public Health, Government of Cameroon (1984–1988); Director of the Cancer Research Laboratory, Université de Yaoundé (1984 - ); Founder - Hope Clinic Cameroon (1991)
VANHIVAX is a vaccine prepared from the viruses contained in the blood of a person infected with the HIV and then re-administered to the patient concerned as a therapeutic auto-vaccine. It was discovered by Professor Victor Anomah NGU in 1989.
A prototype of the vaccine was intended for use as a preventive vaccine against the HIV. Administrative authorities and the scientific community, unfortunately, have not yet accepted to have it tested as such.
Scientific basis of vaccine
The envelope of the HIV is taken from the cell membrane of CD4+ lymphocytes, the HIV is ‘perceived’ by the body’s immune system as partly-self. An effective immune response of the body against the HIV and its envelope would destroy all the CD4+ lymphocytes as well, leading to a fatal auto-immune disease.
To avoid this outcome, the immune responses are obliged to be ineffective. The ideal immune response to the HIV would have been one that is limited to the viral core only and does not affect the viral envelope and CD4+. VANHIVAX meets this ideal. It is prepared by the removal of the viral envelope from the HIV in vitro and used as a vaccine, it provokes in the body effective immune responses directed only against the core of the HIV.
This effective immune response to VANHIVAX in the body was used in various ways as a therapeutic vaccine to treat HIV infected persons whose immune systems are still competent. For normal persons uninfected with the HIV, a prototype of VANHIVAX can also serve as a preventive vaccine.
It should be recalled that any normal preventive vaccine, for example the polio vaccine, is in fact a ‘therapeutic’ vaccine which is administered to a normal child before the infection of the polio virus.
It modifies the immune system of the child concerned which must now lie in wait to kill or to act as a therapeutic agent against the polio virus when it subsequently infects the child. If it is a good vaccine, it does this on a permanent (life-time) basis. VANHIVAX also modifies the immune system of the HIV infected person. The modified immune system does not have to wait but finds the HIV already in place and so sets to work to kill or treat it, as any good preventive vaccine would have done. Both preventive and the so-called therapeutic vaccines use the immune system to achieve the immune destruction of germs in the body.
The capacity to do this will, in both cases, depend on the quality of the vaccine and on the integrity, competence and the responsiveness of their respective immune systems. Because VANHIVAX is a good vaccine and can effectively modify a competent immune system of HIV patient, it can, like the polio vaccine, also achieve a preventive vaccination in such patients. This explains the apparent ‘paradox’ of VANHIVAX as a therapeutic preventive vaccine for HIV infected persons.
Advantages of VANHIVAX
- It is a safe vaccine
- It is tailor made for each patient and avoids the problem of genetic variation that may occur in the patient
- It also avoids any ethical problems because the vaccine is made from the patient’s own viruses
- VANHIVAX is not a drug and does not act on the viruses directly but through the immune system. There should therefore be no resistance to the vaccine. VANHIVAX will fail only if the immune system of the patient fails.
- A successful VANHIVAX vaccination will eliminate the viruses permanently and confer long-lasting protection or prevention against re-infection by the viruses originally present in the VANHIVAX. ‘A vaccine that cures can surely prevent the same viruses’
It is therefore not suitable for advanced AIDS patients but can be applied after certain measures are taken to improve the immune competence of the patient.[1]
- VANHIVAX can achieve a ‘cure’ in a relatively short time without complications. This is an advantage over those who must inconveniently take anti-retrovirals for years or for a life-time with the added risk of drug resistance and toxicity.[2]
- VANHIVAX uses a relatively simple technology. Therefore, it could be produced simultaneously with its preventive prototype in different parts of the World and used to treat and prevent the transmission of HIV.
Disadvantages of VANHIVAX
There is a little pain at the site of the vaccine injection but this is of very short duration. An immune reaction may occur starting about 6 – 10 days later in vaccinated persons. Symptoms include a slight fever, body aches and a malaise lasting a couple of days and can be treated with anti-inflammatory drugs. Such immune reactions are often absent in those with near normal immune systems
Problems using VANHIVAX in HIV/AIDS
The acquired immune deficiency of most HIV/AIDS patients affects not only the number and quality of immune cells but also those other immune factors such as complement that are necessary for a successful immune response. These deficiencies must be reconstituted in most patients before VANHIVAX can be used successfully. In the absence of such reconstitution, in making demands on an already deficient immune system, VANHIVAX could actually aggravate the situation
There are procedures in progress to improve the immune status of patients before VANHIVAX and to augment the cytotoxic arm of the immune response to VANHIVAX so as to achieve maximal viral kill.
Trials on faild
These and other unreported cases have shown clearly that VANHIVAX has brought down the viral load to below the limit 50 in hundreds of patients. In addition, over 90% patients are clinically better with weight increases and improvements in their hematological parameters.
In more recent years, with the refinement of our treatment procedure, the number of patients registered has steadily increased and nearly 7000 cases were registered from March 1, 2003 to July 31, 2005. Most of them were Cameroonians with a few foreign patients from Ethiopia, Rwanda, North America, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Venezuela. The analysis of some of these recent cases is in progress but the high attendance figures, the result of a mouth to mouth campaign by patients themselves, suggest, strongly, that the treatment is at least beneficial.
It's greatly handicapped, however, by the fact that follow-up of patients has been poor; many patients came from rural areas with no proper addresses. To compound matters further, most patients who have recovered from their disease do not wish to be identified as having had HIV/AIDS and so do not return for follow-up appointments.
This notwithstanding, it had found, almost by accident, that 6 (six) of our patients have converted from HIV sero-positive to HIV sero-negative. Two of these patients, one of whom had severe AIDS, were treated in the early 1990s before CD4+s or viral counts could be determined in Cameroon. They now live abroad. Of the other 4 sero-negative patients, 3 had low viral counts at the beginning of their treatment and had reasonably good immune systems. These cases, and probably others who have been lost to follow-up show that VANHIVAX can indeed provoke the total immune destruction of the HIV in patients and lead to a ‘cure’ of the HIV/AIDS in persons with good immune systems.
Cost of VANHIVAX
The cost of monthly consultations and treatments are relative modest. Persons from outside Yaounde or Cameroon will have to travel to Yaounde as well as stay for treatment over 6 – 8 week in a local hotel. Hotel costs vary from the Hilton at about 200.00 US$ a night to modest but clean hotels at 20.00US$ a night. Feeding is extra. An extra 500.00 US$ may be necessary for local lab tests and other incidental expenditure. Those from countries without Cameroon Embassy or High Commission can obtain visas at Yaounde airport, provided there is prior notice of this. Negotiations are planned with various foreign Governments and capable individuals or organizations interested in establishing treatment centres in other parts of the world.
Professional career
1965–1971 Professor at the University of Ibadan 1971–1974 Professor at the University of Yaoundé 1974 - 1982 Vice Chancellor of the University of Yaoundé 1981–1982 President of the Association of African Universities 1984–1988 Minister of Public Health, Cameroon 1984 Director of the Cancer Research Laboratory, University of Yaoundé 1991 Founded Hope Clinic Cameroon
Awards
The professor emeritus received a number of awards and distinctions
• Grand Commander of the National Order of Valour in Cameroon
• Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in Clinical Cancer Chemotherapy
• Dr. Samuel Lawrence Adesuyi Award and Medal by the West African Health Community
References
| Persondata |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
1926 |
| Place of birth |
Buea, Cameroon |
| Date of death |
2011 |
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