Originally published January 2 2006
AIDS in Africa has forced the introduction of herbal medicine into hospitals
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to the Kenya Times, the practice of traditional and herbal medicine is on the rise in Africa, as the medical community struggles to cope with an AIDS epidemic that threatens to overwhelm it.
If he wore spectacles, and was clad in a white dust-coat with a stethoscope over his wide shoulders, Benson Kiunjuri would easily pass for a medical doctor.
He is an expert in roots, tree barks and leaves from which he and makes a host of other concortions that are avidly consumed by hundreds of HIV positive residents of this town on the shoulders of Mount Kenya.
She spits out chicken bones, blood and pus.
Then she rubs some dust mixed with herbs onto the wound.
Once spurned as 'backward' and 'primitive' by Western religions and cultures, traditional medicines have found their way into private chemists' shops and government hospitals since the advent of Aids nearly twenty years ago.
As the fight against Aids intensified over the years, so have barriers between traditional herbalists and their western-trained doctors lessened.
Gerald Rukunga, a medical officer attached to the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) in Makueni, says his project often involves the services of herbalists in the management of cases like epilepsy and malaria, which are rampant in the area.
According to Prof. Alloys Orago, the director of the centre, the university has been at the forefront in spearheading research into traditional herbs and other forms of healthcare in a bid to help the country fight the scourge of Aids.
Two years ago, the university invited herbalists from East Africa to a brainstorming workshop, under the auspices of then vice chancellor, Prof. George Eshiwani.
Today, the centre has links with over 20 herbalists and traditional healers who offer consultancy services at the university while running their own clinics across the country.
According to Francis Olum, who runs a downtown herbal clinic near the Nairobi railway station, traditional medicines are used by at least 80 per cent of the population for primary health care.
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