ZAMBIA: Bridging the Gap Between Traditional and Western Medicine
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Healing the rift |
LUSAKA, 28 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - Zambia's HIV/AIDS pandemic is
helping to bridge the divide between traditional healers and practitioners of
western medicine.
Earlier this year the government commissioned the first
clinical trials of remedies dispensed by traditional healers who claimed to have
found an AIDS cure, fostering closer relations between the two groups of
practitioners. About one in five sexually active Zambian adults is infected with
HIV/AIDS.
National AIDS Council spokesperson Justine Mwiinga told IRIN
that the results would be published soon. "The three herbs passed all the tests
and we have just concluded the six-month clinical observation period, after
having successfully administered the same herbs to 30 people living with
HIV/AIDS."
Clinical tests conducted by medical doctors determined the
composition and properties of the traditional healers' remedies, while
monitoring the patients' CD4 count (which measures the strength of the immune
system), viral load (which measures the amount of HIV in the blood) and
appetite.
"Initial indications show that each of the three formulae has
its own unique healing properties ... Some increase the patients' CD4 count
while others reduce the viral load, or simply treat a number of opportunistic
infections like coughing, rashes and tuberculosis - but we are not saying Zambia
has found a cure for HIV/AIDS," said Mwiinga.
Rodwell Vongo, president of
the 40,000-strong Traditional Health Practitioners Association of Zambia, said
the membership included herbalists, spiritualists, diviners and traditional
birth attendants.
"People have a lot of faith in us because we are
constantly in touch with them. Even when they are diagnosed HIV positive and put
on TB drugs, they still come to seek our opinion," he said. "Therefore, if we
allow the divide between healers and medical doctors to continue, healers may
become counterproductive because we surely have the authority to command any
patient to discontinue the medical doctor's prescribed medicine."
Vongo
said both his organisation and western-trained medical doctors worked for the
"patient's wellbeing and, by working together, we shall cushion government's
depleted resources and save many lives."
About 1.6 million of Zambia's 10
million people are infected with HIV/AIDS, but only 60,000 have access to
antiretroviral (ARV) medication.
Zambia's health sector has been depleted
by medical staff seeking higher salaries and better working conditions in other
countries.
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) 2006 report, Working
Together For Health, cited the shortage of trained health professionals as one
of the main problems in low-income countries struggling against the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
Zambia has about 600 registered doctors in the public and
private health sectors. The doctor-to-patient ratio in the UK is about one to
50; in Zambia it is about one to 14,000.
WHO acknowledged traditional
health practitioners as a key resource in HIV/AIDS prevention and care, and
stressed that an effective response to the pandemic would require collaboration
between traditional and medical health providers.
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