Which Doctors?
On August 27, 2003, the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners conceded that there is no herbal cure for HIV/AIDS. But somebody forgot to pass the word to South Africas Health Minister, Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang, who claimed four days later that traditional African medicines are as effective as Western anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS. The occasion for ...
On August 27, 2003, the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners conceded that there is no herbal cure for HIV/AIDS. But somebody forgot to pass the word to South Africas Health Minister, Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang, who claimed four days later that traditional African medicines are as effective as Western anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS. The occasion for her outburst: the first African Traditional Medicine Day, endorsed by the World Health Organizations (WHO) regional committee for Africa.
On August 27, 2003, the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners conceded that there is no herbal cure for HIV/AIDS. But somebody forgot to pass the word to South Africas Health Minister, Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang, who claimed four days later that traditional African medicines are as effective as Western anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS. The occasion for her outburst: the first African Traditional Medicine Day, endorsed by the World Health Organizations (WHO) regional committee for Africa.
African Heads of State have already designated 2001-2010 as the decade of traditional African medicine and the WHO is planning to cooperate with a new institute of traditional medicine in South Africa. It is calling on African governments to sink more money into research and development of traditional medicines, arguing that it could produce cheap, and socially acceptable, solutions to Africas health problems. Often, there is no alternative: Across the continent, there is 1 traditional healer for every 650 people, compared to 1 qualified doctor per 35,000. Even in South Africa there are nearly 10 times more traditional healers than doctors. Twenty-nine African governments annually spend less than $10 per citizen on health. Foreign aid to the continent has steadily declined. And despite a few well-publicized exceptions, most foreign drug companies remain reluctant to provide drugs at lower prices to patients in developing countries, or to ease patent protections.
WHOs goal is to encourage countries to develop clear guidelines for the use of traditional medicine and to promote more rigorous clinical research into its effects. But let the patient beware. As Nick Eberstadt, a demographer at the American Enterprise Institute whose work has focused on the impact of AIDS, observes, Traditional medicine is the reason people in traditional societies traditionally die at the age of 25.
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