With no antiretrovirals, Venezuela HIV patients rely on leaf remedy

AsVenezuela's hyperinflation and chronic medicine shortages leaveHIVpatientswith little hope of obtaining life-saving anti-retroviral medications, many are nowrelying on the leaves of a tropical tree known called the guasimo.

Patientssay they collect around 50 of the leaves, run them through a blender with water, and then strain the green liquid.

Doctors andpatientsalike have questioned the effectiveness of theremedy, which has for years been used as a complement to pharmaceutical treatment.

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ButHIVpatients, hoping to ward off AIDS, increasingly see it as better than nothing.

For yearspatientsreceived anti-retrovirals provided for free by the state, but supplies dried up as the country's socialist economic system unravelled.

Dr Carlos Perez began recommending the treatment at the start of 2018 when the shortage ofantiretroviralsbecame acute. He tellspatientsto drink the guasimoleafbeverage twice a day for a month.

"It is a complementary treatment," said Perez, who is part of a group called Solidarity Action that helps provide care forHIVpatients. "(One) component of these leaves is tannin, a biochemical component that apparently has antiviral properties."

The Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the medicine shortages.

Antiretroviralsare available for those who can afford them, but few can. A box of 30 pills costs about $85 dollars, the equivalent of nearly a year of a minimum wage. Annual inflation reached 1.3 million per cent in November.

TheVenezuelaoffice of the Joint United Nations Programme onHIVand AIDS said in an email thatVenezuelahad 120,000 people who wereHIVpositive as of 2016, 61 per cent of whom were taking antiretrovirals.

Other doctors say the only real solution forHIVpatientsis for the government to create functioning policies that ensure the availability of medication.