HIV/AIDS: 16 Years Later, Court Finally Legalizes Abalaka's Vaccine

16 years after the Federal government had banned the HIV vaccine discovered by Dr. Jeremiah Abalaka, a Federal High Court in Makurdi, Benue State has lifted the ban. 


The court has held that "given the dreaded nature of HIV/AIDS, it is incumbent on government to encourage health experts with scientific claims to the discovery of vaccines or cure, as opposed to discouraging them," ThisDay has reported. 

According to the court, NAFDAC (the 3rd defendant), although given the responsibility to ban the vaccine, does not have the facilities to test it and as a result couldn't make a convincing reason to warrant the ban of the vaccine. 

The court has also said that the same degree of support given to researchers fighting Ebola should be given to those tackling the HIV/AIDS problem, given the nature of the virus.