AFRICANEWS

Malawi

Malawians Turn To Traditional Medicine

As the spectre of AIDS rears its destructive head in Malawi, and as the country's health-care system is getting progressively worse, Malawians are flocking to traditional medical healers to seek the treatment they need.

Billy Goodson Chisupe had a dream back in 1995. In that dream, the Malawian traditional medical healer's ancestors showed him the cure for AIDS. Chisupe proceeded to concoct a brew called 'Mchape' or Cleanser. Surprisingly, thousands of patients - including several cabinet ministers of the Malawi government - flocked to Chisupe to obtain and drink his medicine.

The experience of Chisupe and many other traditional healers since then shows how strongly many Malawians believe in herbalists. In fact, Malawians are turning to traditional medical treatments in increasing numbers because their health-care system is unable to help them.

After having failed to be healed by the hospitals, patients are seeking relief for cancers, ulcers, rheumatics, malaria, infertility, HIV/AIDS, and AIDS-related diseases such as tuberculosis, and shingles.

"There is no doubt that the use of traditional medicine has increased over the past few years," says Herbalist Bikozi Mpoma Salifu a member of the Herbalist Association of Malawi, an organisation that has a membership of about 20,000 traditional healers and herbalists.

"Even the so-called affluent people, who in the past scoffed at traditional healers, now drive their posh cars to consult traditional doctors at night," he says.

In 1999, there were an estimated 50,000 traditional healers. There were 123 patients to every traditional healer, as compared to 60,000 patients for every medical doctor.

Over the past few years, the country's health care system has come under immense pressure, largely due to crippling financial constraints. For instance, the government has been steadily decreasing its spending on medical drugs. In the latest budget, it had allocated only US$1.25 to purchase medical drugs for every Malawian, as opposed to about US$1.50 worth of drugs per individual per year in last year's budget, and US$2 per individual per year in the 1998/99 budget.

Malawi's adoption in 1994 of a cash-budget system to control its spending on health care meant that the procurement of drugs, medical equipment, and other supplies were curtailed. A "cash-budget system" is one in which the government only spends the money it has available.

Some hospitals, especially those in rural areas, lack essential drugs. In most cases, adequate drugs, and qualified doctors and medical staff are only found in a few private hospitals that unfortunately are expensive for the ordinary person to afford hospital fees. Patients can pay up to US$166 to be treated for general illnesses in top private hospitals. This is unaffordable to many Malawians, whose average monthly wage is about US$85. In public hospitals, which have no drugs, people are able to get medical treatment free of charge.

In the field of traditional medicine, however, payments are flexible and affordable. Salifu says that members of his association do not normally demand money from patients but accept promissory payment. This payment, according to Salifu can be in "cash or kind."

"We don't select or discriminate on patients," says Salifu. "Sometimes we don't charge at all. If someone comes without money to me and I heal the ailments, my popularity will increase. He would invite 10 or more people to come for my services. That way, I will make more than what I was going to get from the first patient."

Salifu says some members of the herbalists association have identified a number of medicinal plants, which are successfully being used as treatments for curing AIDS-related (opportunistic) diseases. However, he stresses that despite claims by some members that they have found a cure for AIDS, the official stance of the herbalists association is that they have no cure for AIDS.

"What we witchdoctors have are herbs that work in the same way like the much publicised AZT cocktail," says Salifu, who hails from the rural district of Salima in central Malawi but plies his trade in the commercial city of Blantyre. "Our herbs can cure HIV/AIDS related diseases and prolong the life of a person infected with HIV/AIDS just as AZT does."

Salifu and other practitioners of traditional medicine accuse health authorities of suppressing their attempts to use natural medicines in the fight against AIDS because of an "Euro-centric approach" to medicine.

"The government would save lives by supporting research and propagating the use of African medicines," says 54 -year-old David Chigaru, a traditional medicine who claims he has discovered a traditional herb that makes HIV dormant.

David Chigaru, a former accountant at Mandala Motors Limited, turned to the practice of traditional medicine after studying the use of traditional medicine in Chinese, Roman, Arabic, and Korean cultures. He claims his drug, MAJU, which he has been researching between 1991 and 1997, prolongs the lives of HIV-infected persons.

Chigaru slammed health ministry officials for discouraging the use of traditional medicine in the fight against AIDS.

However, no matter how the government tries to discourage the use of his anti HIV drug, hundreds and hundreds of people would still be flocking to him because of the affordability and effectiveness of MAJU, says Chigaru.

He says it costs an AIDS patient an average of US$20 for a full dosage of two litres that is taken by a patient over a period of two to three months. He said this is in contrast to government-subsidised imported pharmaceutical anti-retroviral drugs, which cost about US$250 per month.

Chigaru says efforts by medical and herbal researchers to discover a cure for AIDS would take a long time. In the meantime, governments should encourage their citizenry to take medicine that prolongs their lives.

He says that, "in traditional medicine, we use a combination of herbs, vitamins, minerals and food to treat various chronic conditions. But the problem is that people don't appreciate our own scientists and think that science is only in Europe."

The traditional medical researcher says that, despite treating many cabinet ministers, parliamentarians and ministry of health officials, his medicine and methods have failed to gain recognition from the country's health ministry.

Chigaru expresses surprise that, while the Malawi government continues to undermine his drugs, people from Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe visit him frequently to buy his drugs to treat HIV/AIDS.

He notes that there is no law stipulating that Malawians can seek treatment from herbalists. "In our laws we are not recognised," says Chigaru. "There is no single piece of legislature making our work legal. Legally we are not-existent."

He said when the first missionaries introduced Christianity to Malawi, they created a picture portraying all native practices as evil. "Our traditional dances, way of worship, medical practices were branded evil by the early missionaries."

The National Aids Control Programme (NACP) admits that some herbalists have potent cures for certain AIDS-related diseases, which, however, do not effectively kill the deadly virus.

Andrew Agabu, head of NACP's Care and Support section, says NACP regards traditional healers as stakeholders in the effort to find a cure for HIV/AIDS, but pointed out that there is lack of co-ordination between herbalists and health officials.

"Some concoctions from the herbalists may have the ingredients that may alleviate the suffering of HIV/AIDS patients, but without necessarily killing the virus," he says. "If these herbalists are sure the best thing is to contact proper authorities."

Herbalists who have approached Ministry of Health officials to have their medicine tested complain that they are given the cold shoulder by authorities.

A 30-year-old Blantyre-based witch doctor named Ireen Ntonyo claims to have discovered a cure for HIV/AIDS. She says she has struggled for two years to have her medicine tested and approved but her efforts have proved futile.

"Immediately after discovering my 'AIDS cure,' I approached the Ministry of Health to have my drug tested and approved, but to date no feedback has come," she alleges.

Ntonyo says she treats those who have tested positive at government hospitals; when they go for testing after she has offered drugs, "they test negative." She says senior ministry officials are aware of her discovery but are deliberately ignoring her.

But Yusuf Mwawa, Malawi's Minister of Health, has said the government is not reluctant to accept any traditional drugs claimed to cure AIDS, but there is need to thoroughly follow exhaustive procedures to authenticate their curative potential.

He said research on a cure for HIV/AIDS cannot be done overnight, and that herbalists need to have their drugs internationally tested and accepted by world bodies such as World Health Organisation before the government endorses them.

One medical doctor in the capital city of Lilongwe accuses traditional healers of snubbing efforts made by government three years ago to search for herbal remedies to treat HIV/AIDS-related ailments.

"We worked with traditional healers for some months before they withdrew, saying their medicine was being stolen," he says.

One time when he was working at a rural hospital, the doctor discovered that all patients suffering from bilharzia and venereal diseases whose were treated by traditional healers never got cured but instead worsened.

He accused traditional healers of not having a mechanism to determine the medicinal qualities in plants they administer to patients. "Poisonous or not, plants are prescribed for everything."

In addition to treating aliments, traditional healers tend to take on many roles. In rural villages a herbalist, witch doctor or 'ng'anga' as he/she is locally known, is an individual to whom people can turn to in every kind of difficulty.

The herbalist, witch-doctor or 'ng'anga,' is a doctor in sickness, a cleric in religious matters, a lawyer in legal issues, a policeperson in detection and prevention of crime, a possessor of magical preparations which can increase crops and instil special skills and talents into their clients. He/she fills a great position in society; his/her presence gives assurance to the whole community.

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