Nigerians turn to faith healers as HIV aid dries up

Faith healers fill the gap as HIV funding retreats

When the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme was halted in January 2025 by order of President Donald Trump, countless HIV patients in northern Nigeria lost access to the free antiretroviral therapy (ART) that had kept their condition manageable. This was the case for Aisha*, a patient in Maiduguri, who told SciDev.Net: '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.'

Although PEPFAR partially resumed its activities in February 2025, it did so under significant budget cuts. A study by the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) found that at least 1,714 HIV service sites globally closed entirely after terminated or delayed PEPFAR payments, with almost none able to replace lost funding.

The rise of unregulated 'Islamic medicine'

Facing stock-outs and financial barriers, patients across northern Nigeria, as well as Niger and Chad, have begun abandoning proven ART for unregulated alternatives marketed as 'Islamic medicine'. Aisha was among them. '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,' she told SciDev.Net.

This desperation reflects a broader trend in urban centres such as Kano, Bauchi, Gombe, and Maiduguri, where practitioners fill the void left by the funding cuts. Through offline networks and social media, they promote herbal concoctions, promising a total cure in a few months for a one-off purchase.

Claims of cures and the cost to patients

Abubakar Ibrahim, senior registrar in the Department of Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease Unit at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, countered such claims: 'Scientifically, there's no cure to HIV using medication. The ART we use in Nigeria cannot cure HIV.' ART, he explained, works by suppressing the viral load to undetectable levels, preventing the virus from circulating in the body — not by eliminating it.

Still, healers like Yusuf Muhammad Sufi, known as Sarkin Lakanin Jihar Kano, sell their products for N45,000 (approximately US$33) for HIV treatment, and up to N250,000 (US$183) for advanced AIDS regimens. Abdullahi Yunus Umar, who runs the Kashful Aleel Islamic Medicine Centre in Kano and Borno states, says his remedies have 'cured' people living with HIV across Sokoto, Kano, Bauchi, and Maiduguri.

Many practitioners cite a Hadith they interpret as teaching that God created no disease without also creating its cure. However, Muhammad Mufta Mustapha, an Islamic scholar based in Kano, disagrees: 'Selling ineffective remedies that don't perform the functions claimed is an act of deception strictly forbidden by Allah.' He adds that the Hadith should be seen as a mandate for formal scientific research, not a license for unregulated commercialism.

The consequences for those who trust

Aisha believed, as she told SciDev.Net, that because the medicine was rooted in religious scripture, it couldn't fail her, and that it was a permanent way out since the clinics had nothing left to offer for free. But after two months on the herbal remedies, she saw no improvement. 'My symptoms began to return and my body grew weaker,' she reported. She now faces the additional financial burden of paying out of pocket for consultations, routine viral load tests, and clinic administrator fees — costs that were previously covered.

The scale of the problem

Globally, PEPFAR has invested over US$100 billion in the fight against HIV since 2003, supporting antiretroviral treatment for more than 20 million people in over 50 countries. In Nigeria specifically, PEPFAR disbursed over US$7.8 billion to provide more than 1.9 million people with access to ART. The country carries the fourth-largest HIV burden globally, after South Africa, Mozambique, and India. The cuts, combined with the high cost of alternative 'cures', leave many patients like Aisha in a difficult position, caught between constrained medical treatment and unregulated promise.

Perspectives

Medical professionals

Medical practitioners like Abubakar Ibrahim hold a firm position: There is no known cure for HIV; ART only suppresses the virus. They therefore describe turning to unregulated alternatives as dangerous and potentially health-threatening.

Islamic scholars

A scholar like Muhammad Mufta Mustapha emphasizes that the religious justification used by healers is not grounded in Islamic principles. He considers such remedies a form of deception, prohibited by Allah.

Alternative practitioners

Practitioners such as Yusuf Muhammad Sufi and Abdullahi Yunus Umar claim their products have 'cured' people living with HIV, thereby suggesting that their alternatives work where established medicine falls short.

A note on sources

The reporting on this story primarily comes from the work of SciDev.Net, which was carried out by various outlets including AllAfrica. AllAfrica's coverage includes additional details about the healers and scholars, while the same reporting institute provided further context and underscores the scale of the issue.