Abstract

PIP: A French nongovernmental organization (NGO) working in Kagera, Tanzania, has determined that approximately 80% of HIV patients in the country receive their medical attention from a traditional healer rather than from a hospital or primary health care facility. Traditional healers speak the patients' language and give patients a sense of being taken care of through palm-reading and fortune-telling. Patients therefore respect and seek care from traditional healers, but also sometimes have no alternative for care when it comes to AIDS. In the central Iringa region, for example, hospitals admit only acute cases of AIDS. Many sick people are thus encouraged by medical officers to seek traditional help and healers are known to be managing 100-200 chronic cases of AIDS. The psychotherapeutic care they provide is highly praised by doctors and researchers, but other methods of treatment, such as sucking blood and extracting teeth, are highly suspect. Beyond suspect, they are also high-risk HIV activities. The greatest area of concern about traditional healers is the misinformation they disseminate about having found miracle cures for AIDS. Although most remedies from traditional herbalists are ineffective, a compound called XTT tetracodium found in plants has been found to decrease the rate at which HIV breaks down healthy blood cells. XTT tetracodium, however, is unlikely to be marketed as a drug against AIDS anytime soon. AIDS educators, doctors, and policymakers believe that the positive aspects of what traditional healers can contribute need to be encouraged. Concerning some of their high-risk treatments, both healers and patients will have to be taught about the dangers so that the easily avoidable transmission of HIV can be avoided. An NGO representative has even recommended that every hospital have a department of traditional medicine.