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Website:http://www.humichealth.info/southafricanmed.html*HumicAcid.info Editor's Note:Anti-Viral Humic Acid Research has been on-going for several decades. Tests havebeen conducted with both Natural and Synthetic Humic Acids. The variety of syntheticHumic Acids is nearly as great as the variety of Humic Acids found in nature. Synthetic

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Coal-Derived Drug Tested on HIVPatients

01 October 2001From New Scientist Print Edition.Emma Young

An "immune-boosting" drug derived from coal is being tested on HIV-infected soldiers inmilitary clinics in Tanzania. The drug, oxyhumate-k, was developed by South Africanstate-owned company Enerkom. There is disagreement over whether Tanzanian

authorities have given permission for the trials.Oxyhumate-k is already marketed as a health supplement in South Africa and is notthought to be harmful to health. However, the revelation of the trial follows a scandalover another South African "anti-HIV/AIDS" drug also tested in Tanzania calledVirodene. Virodene turned out to be a toxic industrial solvent.

About 350 soldiers in several military clinics are involved in the trial of oxyhumate-k,says Anthony Surridge, Enerkom's acting chief executive. The trial, which began in

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1999, is being overseen by immunologists at the University of Pretoria and followssmaller scale tests in South Africa. These tests showed the drug was non-toxic,Enerkom says.

Informed ConsentSouth African ethics experts have criticised the use of soldiers in the trials. They fear

that informed consent may not have been given. "You need to question why soldierswere used. That's where I would start worrying and criticising," said Udo Schuklenk,head of bioethics at the University of Witwatersrand, in the South African Mail &Guardian.

Other critics say there is no credible evidence to support Enerkom's claim that the drugboosts the immune system.

The South African government has long rejected calls to pay for conventional anti-retroviral drugs to treat its estimated 4.7 million HIV sufferers, claiming that the drugsare too costly.

Despite winning a landmark case earlier in 2001, allowing the country to import or

produce generic versions of patented AIDS drugs, the government has said it has noimmediate plans to do either.

Enerkom, which is owned by the government's Central Energy Fund, was set up toresearch and develop new uses for coal. According to the Mail & Guardian, the CEFhas given Enerkom approximately 6 million to research and develop a productionprogramme for oxyhumate-k. The compound is the potassium salt of oxihumic acid, oneof the components of coal.

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