Defining Minimum Standards of Practice for Incorporating African Traditional Medicine into HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care, and Support: A Regional Initiative in Eastern and Southern Africa

Abstract

In many resource-poor settings of Africa, a majority of people living with HIV/AIDS depend on and choose traditional healers for psychosocial counseling and health care. If the current pan-African prevention and care efforts spurred by the HIV pandemic do not actively engage African Traditional Medicine, they will effectively miss 80%, the vast majority of the African people who, according to the World Health Organization, rely on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs. In 2001, the Ugandan nongovernmental organization, Traditional and Modern Health Practitioners Together Against AIDS and Other Diseases, in Kampala, identified the need for a concerted, systematic, and sustained effort at both local and regional levels to support and validate African Traditional Medicine on several fronts. The Eastern & Southern Africa Regional Initiative on Traditional Medicine and AIDS was borne out of this assessment. It convened a regional consultation in May 2003, which produced a series of proposed standards around six main themes related to traditional medicine and HIV/AIDS: the systematic evaluation of traditional remedies; spiritual aspects of healing; HIV prevention and care; processing and packaging of traditional remedies; protection of indigenous knowledge; and intellectual property rights related to traditional health systems. These standards, summarized in this paper, will be incorporated into programs on traditional medicine and HIV/AIDS by various implementers in the region. A number of strategies to test and implement these recommendations are also defined.

Patients Consulting Traditional Health Practioners In The Context Of Hiv/Aids In Urban Areas In Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

“…Although all THP in this study had been specifically trained on HIV/AIDS/STI some still engaged in HIV risk practices such as reuse of enema equipment without sterilization, use of the same razor blade for scarifications on more than one patient and did not use gloves when carrying out scarifications. Communities, THP clients and THP should be further trained/empowered in the following minimum aspects of HIV prevention and care: Cultural beliefs and practices; Basic and updated information on prevention and care for STDs, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis; Infection control; Identification of danger signs to enable THPs to make referrals; Integration of biomedical and traditional counselling approaches on STDs, HIV/AIDS, and TB, including client couselling, support and referral (Homsy et al, 2004).…”

Prevalence and Predictors of Traditional Medicine Utilization among Persons Living With AIDS (PLWA) on Antiretroviral (ARV) and Prophylaxis Treatment in both Rural and Urban Areas in South Africa

“…acceptability and mind/body/spirit connection (Bodeker and Kroneberg, 2002;Elujoba et al, 2005;Homsy et al, 2004;Liverpool et al, 2004). The World Health Organisation estimates that up to 80% of people in Africa make use of traditional medicine for primary health care (WHO, 2003).…”

STD/AIDS prevention in Portuguese-speaking Africa: a review of the recent literature in the social sciences and health

“…Given that 80% of the African population relies on traditional medicines for its health care, the literature argues that prevention policies must work to reconcile so-called native discourses with those of Western medicine 43 . Some analyses state that the integrated use of traditional and Western practices in African societies depends upon each disease's identity and cause, so it is important to understand how these logics operate.…”