Dr. Leo Rebello, internationally renowned holistic healer, recently released a book titled Aids and Alternative Medicine. I had met the learned Indian doctor in Durban, during the XIII International Aids Conference, July 2000.

In his introduction Dr. Rebello says : "Lord Jesus Christ was crucified only once. Mahatma Gandhi was likewise shot once. But AIDS patients are killed thrice over: (a) By disease, by scare, by ostracism. (b) By toxic chemicals (c) By the frightening costs of AIDS medicines. Nobody talks of age-old Alternative Medicine. There is more Aids Scare than Aids Care". Golden words indeed.

"There is a need", the doctor adds, "to educate people on the Alternative Approaches to the faulty condom and chemical treatment approach". The book was first released in Durban, South Africa during the XIII International Aids Conference, when he conducted a six hour workshop for Community Indaba. This is the second revised and enlarged edition on popular demand.

Going through the contents of the unique book written by Dr. Leo Rebello, who has lectured in over 45 countries and written till date some two dozen books, one is awed with an array of topics covered extensively : Nature Cure and AIDS, Ayurveda and AIDS, Herbs and AIDS, Homoeopathy and AIDS, Nutrition and Diet in AIDS, Yoga for AIDS. The book also discusses Bio-testing, Iris Diagnosis, Natural, Homoeopathic and Veggie Vaccines and advises patients to return to the safer, cheaper, superior alternative treatment modalities.

The book is comprehensive and path-breaking in as much as this is the first book of its kind. According to Dr. Manu Kothari, Member of South African President's Aids International Advisory Committee : "This is the ultimate book on AIDS that nails down myths about HIV/AIDS and covers authoritatively everything about Alternative Medicine". In a special chapter titled From Aids Scare to Aids Care, Dr. Rebello shreds to pieces the Aids Monster and talks of bringing Humanism into Medicine.

In the Addendum section Dr. Rebello analyses the 1990 WHO Report on AIDS and Traditional Medicine, with cryptic Comments, and makes a case for banning all HIV Antibody Testing and AZT. He says Glaxo should be penalized like Marlbro (the tobacco giants) for misguiding patients on AZT's carcinogenic effect.

So far we knew of four routes by which AIDS could be contracted, namely, Sexual Transmission, Infective Needle, Infected Mother, Blood Transfusion. Dr. Leo Rebello adds another category : Aids by Prescription. He terms David Ho as David Ho(ax) and graphically tells the reader about the dangers of lethal cocktails (popularly known as protease inhibitors).

"Think over", Dr. Leo Rebello exhorts to planners, educationists, media, aids activists and others : "Many people who have AIDS don't have the money to buy food, let alone the medications they need. It is necessary that they do not suffer from malnutrition -- which is why it is important that patients learn to rediscover their traditional meals and medicines. The 'standard' western diet is very high in toxins. Western medicines likewise are lethal. They do not heal they kill. Western Lifestyle + Western Diet = Western Diseases. The solution to AIDS as also to safety of human beings, development, or world peace lies in oriental wisdom". He writes succinctly and drives home the points accurately, briefly, clearly. Savor this for example :