The President’s Alternative Treatment Programme was an alternative medicine treatment programme initiated and advocated by former President Yahya Jammeh, who claimed he could cure HIV/AIDS and other ailments.
The Whitepaper further accepted the prosecution of Yahya Jammeh and Dr Tamsir Mbowe for negligence causing deaths of PLHIV who took part in the programme and were deprived from lifesaving treatment.
The government will also prosecute them for the inhumane and degrading treatment meted out on PLHIV that took part in the treatment programme, and for admitting children into the PATP in violation of the provisions of the Children’s Act 2005 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The government will as well revoke Dr Tamsir Mbowe’s practising licence indefinitely for failing to honour the medical code of conduct and for the role he played in the fake PATP.
The strengthening of the existing regulations on the use of herbal medical products through the effective enforcement of the Medicines and Related Products Act, 2014 was also accepted.
