Claims by local medicinal herb practitioner, Carlton Bennett, that herbal remedies can cure COVID-19 and other diseases, have stirred up controversy and caught the attention of several individuals who are eager to test his hypothesis.

Feedback from readers locally and abroad to Bennett’s feature in last Sunday’s Observer revealed stories of people who claimed to have been cured by his remedies, or those who are seeking help with ailments that doctors have failed to cure.

“I got a diagnosis last November and I decided that I am going to go about it with holistic treatment. I want to learn more about herbs. I don’t want the chemotherapy or any of the treatment that the doctors give me,” said one woman.

A man, who claimed to have an undiagnosed illness, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about Bennett’s claims.

“I want to test out his approach to healing. I have an ailment that I am not 100 per cent sure of. I went to the doctor and had to get a blood test done. But I believe in herbal medicine and I want to know about what he does and the ailments he can treat, although we still have to be cautiously optimistic,” he said,

Another woman who spoke with the Sunday Observer claimed that she had been cured of HIV/AIDS after using medicinal herb.

“While I was going to the doctor, I did not feel comfortable there. I didn’t feel comfortable with the medication they were giving me because they made me feel sick. I was drowsy and tired and it only stressed me out more. Sometimes I wouldn’t bother to take them or mi just throw them away.

“But after taking the herbs I started feeling much better, my complexion went back to normal. And while taking the medicine mi never used to eat. The herbal medicine make mi start eat again. It just change my whole life,” the woman claimed.

Wanting to remain anonymous, the woman said that after two years of not taking the antiretroviral drug administered for the virus, she became pregnant and decided to return to her doctor.

“When I went back on the doctor’s medication, they told me that they seeing more virus in my blood. When I heard that I knew something was off because when I was not on the medication, I was alright and when they put me back on the medication, the virus in my body went up.

“For about two years I stopped taking the doctor’s medication and while I was not taking it I ended moving and had to go to a different doctor. And the only reason why I went back to the doctor was because I was pregnant,” she said.

The woman explained that it was during her pregnancy that she also started looking for an alternative form of treatment.

“I just put my trust in God. I started searching for a herbal man and I found him. When I found that I had HIV, I cried and I never stopped searching and believing that I would get healing because I told myself that I was not going to live with it,” she said.

“I purchased the herbal medicine and from I start taking it I don’t go back to the doctor,” she added. “I believe that the herb is better than the doctor medication that made me feel worse. When I take the herbs, I can go about with my life. I don’t feel any side effect or anything like that.”

The woman also claimed to have done a blood test at a private lab to prove that she has been cured.

“Even though I stopped going to the clinic, I went to a lab to do a blood test and that test came back negative,” she said.

The woman said she has been taking a combination of two herbal tonics, two times each day, for little over a year now.

“It is not something that smell good or taste so good but from is something that is going to heal me and free me from that dirty disease, I was glad for the herbs,” the woman said.