Every Thursday, the President of Gambia Yahya Jammeh, 41, sets down to demonstrate his power—available only on that day of the week—to defeat AIDS. And the nation’s television cameras capture the miracle.

“Patients lie flat on their backs as the president whirls around them and mumbles verses from the Koran. He slaps green sludge onto their skin, sprinkles liquid from an old Evian bottle over them and gives them a brown broth to drink. A quick banana snack completes the therapy.

“That’s it. Thanks to the power of the Koran and seven secret herbs this treatment, repeated over the course of several weeks, leads to the patient being cured of the lethal virus “with absolute certainty,” as Jammeh says. But two requirements need to be met for it all to work.

“First: His patients have to renounce alcohol, tea, coffee and sex for the duration of their treatment — as well as theft. And second: Whoever is taking anti-viral medication has to stop doing so immediately, according to Jammeh.”

Read the full story: Epidemic of ignorance