Scientists have warned people with HIV against taking moringa juice to treat the virus after Facebook posts touted the plant as a “cure” for the condition. The false claim, which has circulated on social media in Myanmar for years, resurfaced after the ongoing political crisis in the Southeast Asian country led to the collapse of its healthcare system. There is no cure for HIV, health experts said.
“One of the less well-known benefits of moringa leaves is its ability to cure HIV,” said the lengthy Burmese-language Facebook post touting the plant.
“Researchers have found that some patients drinking moringa juice were completely cured of the disease.”
The post, shared on a Facebook page with more than 27,000 followers on January 10, 2024, recommends drinking one teacup of moringa leaf extract or a powder version of the plant.
It shows a photo of moringa leaves and drumsticks, which is the fruit of the plant.
Native to tropical Asia, the moringa or moringa oleifera is a common cooking ingredient in the region.
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) — an infection that attacks the immune system — is the virus that can cause AIDS.
Facebook posts touting moringa juice as a cure for the virus surfaced in Myanmar in at least 2017 and have circulated repeatedly in the years after (2018, 2021, 2022).
Myanmar’s healthcare system was battered by a mass walk-out in 2021 by doctors and nurses protesting against the military coup.
The protests, which left many hospitals empty, saw patients turn to herbal remedies and secret clinics staffed by medics hiding from the junta.
No HIV cure
Dr Edsel Maurice Salvana, an infectious diseases expert at the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, said “there is no practical cure for HIV at this time”.
“There have been only five documented cures from HIV and only with high risk stem cell transplants that were given not because of HIV but because of a cancer,” he told AFP in an email on March 1, 2024.
The standard treatment for HIV is antiretroviral therapy or ART — a life-long treatment process to manage the patient’s viral load (archived link).
“Anti-retrovirals do not cure HIV” he said. “They merely suppress viral replication.”
Dr Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw, a lecturer at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health, said that there is no cure for HIV.
“Scientists have not yet unlocked the cure or drug to kill HIV since these viruses are hiding in the DNA of our immune cells as the latent HIV reservoir,” she told AFP in an email on March 18, 2024.
She also stressed that HIV patients can live a full and normal life with the help of antiretroviral therapy (ART).
No scientific evidence
Salvana said there was no evidence moringa can cure HIV.
“Moringa is not a cure for HIV. It does not suppress viral load,” he said, warning that taking moringa supplements can lead to a risk of complications with the antiretroviral drug for HIV patients.
“Always talk to your doctor before taking any kind of supplements and make sure that any supplements you end up using come from reliable and legal sources which follow good manufacturing practices.”
Thin Zaw told AFP that although some research suggested that moringa could reduce opportunistic infection — illnesses caused by weakened immune system, it is not a cure for HIV (archived link here, and here).
“It’s hard to kill HIV hiding in our own DNA,” she said.
A spokesman for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there was “no evidence” to support the claim.
“People with HIV should take medicine to treat HIV as soon as possible,” he told AFP in an email on January 16, 2024.
AFP has previously debunked posts falsely touting HIV “cures”.
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