IK Notes Traditional Medicine and AIDS A regional task force on tradi- tional medicine and AIDS in east Together Against AIDS (THETA), a Ugandan NGO that promotes collabo- and southern Africa will be (sic) inau- ration between traditional and modern gurated in Kampala, Uganda, on April health practitioners in the fight against 10, 2000. The task force will coordinate AIDS. Support was provided by UNAIDS activity related to the widespread use of and the Association for the Promotion traditional medicine by people with of Traditional Medicine (PROMETRA), HIV/AIDS in Africa and the role of tra- an international NGO based in ditional healers in AIDS prevention. Senegal. THETA has taken the lead in The nine-member task force of east and east Africa in developing partnerships southern African non-governmental or- between biomedical and traditional ganizations (NGOs), international or- health sectors. ganizations, and west African observer Many of the conference delegates ar- delegations, will share information, gued at the Kampala meeting that, in generate an inventory of activities view of its widespread use, traditional about traditional medicine, document medicine is in a real sense carrying the and distribute best practices, promote burden of clinical care for the AIDS epi- research in traditional medicine, and demic in Africa, a trend largely over- mobilize resources. The task force will looked by health ministries, interna- recognize the fact that in Africa, the tional agencies, and donors. Delegates high cost and scarcity of many essential focused on collaboration between the drugs, including antiretroviral drugs, traditional and modern health sectors. means that most people with HIV/AIDS They identified projects that meet cri- use traditional herbal treatments for teria for “best practice” responses to No. 26 HIV-related conditions including oppor- the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Most November 2000 tunistic infections. In Uganda, there is one traditional health practitioners for every 200-400 people, whereas the IK Notes reports periodically on Indig- enous Knowledge (IK) initiatives in availability of trained medical person- Sub-Saharan Africa. It is published by nel is typically one per 20 000 people. the Africa Region’s Knowledge and Learning Center as part of an evolving The plan to establish the task force IK partnership between the World arose from a UNAIDS-sponsored confer- Bank, communities, NGOs, develop- ence in Kampala, in February, 2000. ment institutions and multilateral orga- nizations. The views expressed in this 100 delegates from 17 African coun- article are those of the authors and World Bank tries met to review the effect of tradi- should not be attributed to the World Bank Group or its partners in this ini- tional healers on HIV prevention and tiative. A webpage on IK is available at care. The meeting was hosted by Tradi- http://www.worldbank.org/aftdr/ik/ tional and Modern Health Practitioners default.htm 2 countries in the region reported some initiatives involving most Africans with HIV/AIDS cannot afford modern drugs traditional medicine and practitioners. Dr Sandra Anderson with proven effectiveness. of UNAIDS, South Africa, noted that “traditional health prac- Noting the need for a regional network of organizations titioners occupy a critical role in African societies and are currently working in isolation with traditional medicine and making a valuable contribution to AIDS prevention and HIV/AIDS, the meeting proposed the establishment of the care”. THETA director, Dr Donna Kabatesi, cited clinical data task force, for which THETA will serve as the Secretariat. on Ugandan herbal treatments effective against herpes Task-force members include the Traditional Health Practitio- zoster and HIV-associated chronic diarrhea and weight loss. ners Association of Zambia, and the Zimbabwean National Professor Charles Wambebe, head of Nigeria’s National Insti- Traditional Healers Association. There will be observer tute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, re- groups from the west African nations of Ghana, Nigeria, and ported preliminary clinical data on a Nigerian herbal medi- Cameroon. International partners are UNAIDS, WHO/AFRO, cine that seems to increase CD4-cell counts and lead to im- and the Global Initiative For Traditional Systems (GIFTS) of provements in HIV-related illness; controlled clinical trials Health and its partner organization the Commonwealth are now underway. Dr Mberesero Firmina of the Tanga AIDS Working Group on Traditional and Complementary Health Working Group presented findings on Tanzanian herbal treat- Systems. GIFTS has accepted responsibility to lay the ments for HIV-related fungal infections. groundwork for a network of researchers and institutions to Although traditional health systems are locally accessible build a research program that will identify, assess, and de- and culturally relevant, they must first be rendered safe. Most velop safe and effective local treatments for HIV-related ill- importantly, poor documentation, a lack of standardization, nesses. The program will use simplified but controlled clini- and the absence of regulatory mechanisms for traditional cal protocols to conduct rapid investigations of promising health-care practice in many countries were seen as chal- treatments. It will build databases for information sharing on lenges to be overcome if traditional medicine is to be more the successes and failures of local treatments. The program systematically included as a key player in AIDS prevention will be based on an intellectual property rights framework to and care. Mutual misunderstanding between modern and tra- protect the rights of local knowledge holders, learning les- ditional practitioners, weak organization of healers, and sen- sons from a few existing programs in Africa. Recognizing the sationalist media reporting all contribute to the marginal sta- global, unsustainable pressure on wild stocks of medicinal tus of traditional medicine in African countries. Despite plants, sustainable horticulture will be promoted for priority many governments and international agencies calling for species. A solid government research infrastructure, backed “recognition” of traditional medicine, the lack of serious by international agencies, will need to be developed to ensure commitment and action on this issue was seen as a key im- a rapid research response to positive preliminary findings. pediment to identifying effective indigenous approaches to This strategy will be designed to guide promising herbal AIDS prevention and care and to building strong partner- treatments through to the stages of development of safe, ef- ships for an integrated strategy against HIV/AIDS. As a re- fective, and affordable medicines. It will emphasize, where sult, scores of medicinal plants that are used daily in Africa applicable, the local production and dissemination of useful and may have potential effectiveness against opportunistic herbs at the national, community, and family level, towards infections or HIV remain unknown or uninvestigated, while an African solution for combating AIDS in Africa. This article is reproduced in its entirety, with permission, from Lancet, 8th April 2000, Volume 355, page 1284. The original title of the article was “ A Regional Task Force on Traditional Medicine and AIDS”. The authors are Gerard Bodeker, Donna Kabatesi, Rachel, King, Jacques Homsy, Green College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6HG, UK; THETA, Uganda; and Medecins Sans Frontieres, Uganda. COPYRIGHT 2000 The Lancet Ltd. in association with The Gale Group and LookSmart. COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group