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Zambia Achieves Breakthrough in Herbal Medicine for Treatment of HIV/ AIDS

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 February 2005, 09:00 CST

Zambia achieves breakthrough in herbal medicine for treatment of HIV/AIDS

LUSAKA, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Zambia is on the verge of starting using herbal medicine as an alternative remedy to conventional medicines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS following a breakthrough in some traditional medicines that were being tested for their efficacy, a senior government official said here Tuesday.

"We have had laboratory tests on some traditional medicines that were brought forward by traditional healers and so far from signs got from these tests we are heading somewhere," Rosemary Musonda, the director general of the country's National AIDS Council (NAC), told Xinhua in an interview.

According to the official, laboratory tests have been conducted on 14 of the traditional medicines brought forward and four of these have proved to have some efficacy.

"The next stage is to conduct clinical trials on human beings and that is when we will really know if this medicine can work. So we cannot be too excited now," she said.

She however could not state when the clinical tests would be conducted, saying "it will depend on the availability of money."

Zambia made a bold decision to start testing traditional medicines as an alternative treatment to the dreaded HIV/AIDS pandemic last year.

The move ended many years of debate and speculation in Zambia as to whether modern and traditional medicines could combine in the fight against the pandemic.

The government also invited all traditional healers claiming to have traditional medicines that could cure the disease to submit samples of their medicine to be tested for their efficacy and safety.

According to Patrick Chikusu, the chairman of the Working Group on Traditional and Alternative Remedies under NAC, 80 samples of traditional medicines were submitted by traditional healers and so far only 14 have been tested in which four have proved to have some efficacy.

Chikusu said although preliminary results have yielded promising results caution should be strictly observed as testing and verification continues.

He said that traditional medicine has continued to be used for primary health care of the poor in developing countries while it has also been integrated into the conventional medicines of some advanced countries.

"It is imperative that Zambia moves from mere empirical evidence to scientific evidence of their (traditional medicine) efficacious properties," he said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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