Zambian Health Workers Condemn "AIDS Cure" Claims by Traditional Doctors
Mon Dec 2, 3:12 PM ET
Dickson Jere,OneWorld Africa
Health professionals in Zambia are warning people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus against seeking treatment from traditional doctors who offer low-cost "AIDS cures" that can have serious side effects.
The Panos Institute on HIV/AIDS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
Kaunda Children of Africa Foundation
OneWorld AIDS Channel
The Network of Zambian People Living with HIV (NZP+) said traditional doctors are making a profit out of claims that herbal remedies they administer, with a few mystic words, at makeshift clinics around the country eradicates the virus which can lead to AIDS.
"Most of these doctors don't even have kits for testing HIV and yet they claim to have found a cure," said NZP+ spokesman Bwalya Mutale, noting the proliferating number of newspaper adverts selling "miracle cures" for HIV, which is estimated to have infected one fifth of Zambia's 10.3 million population.
"Some of these herbs are toxic and dangerous for human consumption," said Francis Kasolo, a virologist who is actively involved in HIV/AIDS research at Lusaka's University Teaching Hospital. The herbal treatments can exacerbate an HIV patient's condition, causing vomiting, dry coughs, and a bowel problems, according to Kasolo, who added that some of his hospital colleagues had been asked to treat such complications.
While there are no figures on the number of people with HIV who take the herbs, the majority who opt for such treatment do so because it is much cheaper, at about five cents for a monthly supply, than standard anti-retroviral drugs, which cost about US$200 per month. Most Zambians earn less than US$50 per month.
HIV positive Zambians are among tens of millions in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who cannot afford the anti-retroviral medications that help to build resistance to HIV, which destroys lymphocytes in the bloodstream, thus weakening the immune system, and leaving patients susceptible to potentially deadly secondary infections.
Of the 40 million people living with HIV around the world, less than two percent have access to medical treatment, and most of them live in industrialized countries, the Joint United Nations (news - web sites) Programme on HIV/AIDS has reported.
This situation could worsen, according to a new report from the London-based Panos Institute, a development think tank, because developing countries will come under intense pressure within the next 15 years to bring national legislation into line with the international Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (known as TRIPS), which covers the manufacture of HIV drugs.
In November last year, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) reached a landmark decision allowing revisions to TRIPS which would open the way for developing countries to override drug patents, and make and export cheap "generic" copies to meet public health needs.
However, WTO members meeting in Geneva last week failed to agree on a way for pharmaceutical industries in developing countries to supply other low-income countries with the drugs needed to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases which spread rapidly.
The Zambian government is currently negotiating directly with leading pharmaceutical companies in the United States, Italy, and India for supplies of the cheaper generic anti-retrovirals, as well as conducting clinical trials of the herbal treatments used by traditional doctors.
Rodwell Vongo, the leader of the Traditional Healers Association of Zambia said that while his members did not claim to be able to cure HIV, they offered remedies that cure opportunistic diseases such as tuberculosis.
However, according to NZP+'s Mutale, until the government fulfills its pledge to organize cheaper effective medical treatment for HIV patients, "the majority will continue taking the traditional herbs."
Mon Dec 2, 3:12 PM ET
Dickson Jere,OneWorld Africa
Health professionals in Zambia are warning people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus against seeking treatment from traditional doctors who offer low-cost "AIDS cures" that can have serious side effects.
The Panos Institute on HIV/AIDS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
Kaunda Children of Africa Foundation
OneWorld AIDS Channel
The Network of Zambian People Living with HIV (NZP+) said traditional doctors are making a profit out of claims that herbal remedies they administer, with a few mystic words, at makeshift clinics around the country eradicates the virus which can lead to AIDS.
"Most of these doctors don't even have kits for testing HIV and yet they claim to have found a cure," said NZP+ spokesman Bwalya Mutale, noting the proliferating number of newspaper adverts selling "miracle cures" for HIV, which is estimated to have infected one fifth of Zambia's 10.3 million population.
"Some of these herbs are toxic and dangerous for human consumption," said Francis Kasolo, a virologist who is actively involved in HIV/AIDS research at Lusaka's University Teaching Hospital. The herbal treatments can exacerbate an HIV patient's condition, causing vomiting, dry coughs, and a bowel problems, according to Kasolo, who added that some of his hospital colleagues had been asked to treat such complications.
While there are no figures on the number of people with HIV who take the herbs, the majority who opt for such treatment do so because it is much cheaper, at about five cents for a monthly supply, than standard anti-retroviral drugs, which cost about US$200 per month. Most Zambians earn less than US$50 per month.
HIV positive Zambians are among tens of millions in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who cannot afford the anti-retroviral medications that help to build resistance to HIV, which destroys lymphocytes in the bloodstream, thus weakening the immune system, and leaving patients susceptible to potentially deadly secondary infections.
Of the 40 million people living with HIV around the world, less than two percent have access to medical treatment, and most of them live in industrialized countries, the Joint United Nations (news - web sites) Programme on HIV/AIDS has reported.
This situation could worsen, according to a new report from the London-based Panos Institute, a development think tank, because developing countries will come under intense pressure within the next 15 years to bring national legislation into line with the international Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (known as TRIPS), which covers the manufacture of HIV drugs.
In November last year, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) reached a landmark decision allowing revisions to TRIPS which would open the way for developing countries to override drug patents, and make and export cheap "generic" copies to meet public health needs.
However, WTO members meeting in Geneva last week failed to agree on a way for pharmaceutical industries in developing countries to supply other low-income countries with the drugs needed to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases which spread rapidly.
The Zambian government is currently negotiating directly with leading pharmaceutical companies in the United States, Italy, and India for supplies of the cheaper generic anti-retrovirals, as well as conducting clinical trials of the herbal treatments used by traditional doctors.
Rodwell Vongo, the leader of the Traditional Healers Association of Zambia said that while his members did not claim to be able to cure HIV, they offered remedies that cure opportunistic diseases such as tuberculosis.
However, according to NZP+'s Mutale, until the government fulfills its pledge to organize cheaper effective medical treatment for HIV patients, "the majority will continue taking the traditional herbs."
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