THE ISSUE OF ARVs AND AFRICAN COCKTAILS

Phaphamani Home-based Care Centre in Kabokweni, White River in Mpumalanga, a small nonprofit organisation established in 1997, is aware of AIDS severity and several people who have died as a result of not taking their scientifically tested medication. The participants asked: “What’s the point of treatment adherence counselling when a person will stop taking medication in favour of ubhejani – the African cocktail?” Any person goes through adherence counselling before they are given ARVs. “They will come to a clinic and when asked about how their treatment is working, they usually say fine, even though they are not taking ARVs.” Reluctance to take the ARVs could be throttled by once a kleptomaniac Minister Manto Tshabalala’s obsession with the beetroot, lemon, ginger, garlic and the African potato and her emphasis that ARVs are toxic. It is clear that she is an avowed opponent of ARV therapy. Yes, remedies like mother’s milk and ginger can make a person feel better, but HIV clinicians are convinced that ARVs represent the only real treatment for HIV today – unless an HIV vaccine is discovered – which looks unlikely, at least in the next ten years.

The claim by bogus herbalists (as seen in newspaper adverts, leaflets and posters around major towns and cities) that they can cure rincilana (AIDS) is devastatingly misleading. Several AIDS sufferers spend huge stacks of cash seeking help from these healers who are only hell-bent on maximizing profits, similarly like the conventional heartless pharmaceuticals. Most of those who parade as traditional leaders are not even diviners or sangomas, but sheer conmen who take advantage of the AIDS sick to make quick cash.

“What I like about sangomas is that they’ve given me a bitter cocktail that is meant to deal with the sores from inside. The sangoma told me that I must not mix her medicine with ARVs because she’s sure hers work better and faster than white man’s drugs. She has charged me a once-off payment of R700, which is affordable. She said there’s no way I won’t heal, and told me of people who were in sickbed for months that she’s healed”, recounts one of my relatives who believes he was showered with symptoms of AIDS by a wicked and jealous colleague at work. I insist, “brother, whether you’ve been bewitched or not, you must take the ARVs. Perhaps they’ll prolong your life to some more years.” Clearly, my brother with deep sunken eyes is going to join his ancestors. The man who used to weigh over 80kgs is so skinny that clothes hang around his tiny frame like it’s a hanger. His hair hardly grows, and the ones that grow can easily be counted. His body has patches of various dark marks and scars. His face is so dry, not even the thickest Vaseline petroleum jelly can stick on it for long. He insists, “I have ARVs on stand-by. I took them for two weeks to boast my immune system. But since consulting the expert sangoma in Khujwana village, I have stopped taking them. What is the use of taking ARVs that will not heal you inside, but only soften your face, arms and skin, then make you gain enormous weight? A man dies from inside – from the sores”, he reasons.

What is obvious is that AIDS patients would benefit a great deal if African traditional medicinal practice was made available in hospitals and clinics and properly regulated by the government. Consequently, the common AIDS stigma would be slightly eliminated, and the general dualism regarding ARV and untested cocktail drug use would be managed and monitored better.

A few years ago the government appealed a court decision that ordered it to provide ARVs to AIDS sufferers. Fortunately, the courts dismissed government’s appeal. In retrospect, even though the government is currently providing ARVs to about 350 000 AIDS sufferers, a commendable action though not good enough, it could be assumed that it is doing so reluctantly – and/or deliberately making the antiretroviral programme fail so that it could win the battle outside the courts. These mixed messages and tactics surely compromise the valued lives of AIDS sufferers, who, sadly, are likely to try every drug, herb and bark available in clinics and underground markets. And of course there’s a growing number of bogus prophets and the mushrooming churches who claim they can cure AIDS whilst they could be dying of it themselves.