Publication: Traditional Medicine and AIDS
Loading...
Date
2000-11
ISSN
Published
2000-11
Editor(s)
Abstract
The note looks at the work of a regional task force in East, and Southern Africa, established on April 2000 to coordinate activities related to the widespread use of traditional medicine, by people with HIV/AIDS in the region, and on the role of traditional healers in AIDS prevention. The high costs, and scarcity of many essential drugs, including antiretroviral drugs in Africa, means that most people affected by the epidemic, use traditional herbal treatments. At the same time, various agencies, and nongovernmental organizations were leading the development of partnerships between biomedical, and traditional health sectors. Clinical data on herbal treatments effective against herpes, and HIV-associated chronic diseases have been cited, as was preliminary data on herbal medicine that seems to increase CD4-cell counts, conducive to improvements in HIV-related illnesses. However, mutual misunderstanding between modern, and traditional practitioners, and weak organization of healers, contribute to the marginal status of traditional medicine. On reviewing efforts, the Global Initiative For Traditional Systems (GIFTS) of Health accepted the responsibility to lay the foundation for a network of researchers, to build a research program to identify, assess, and develop safe local treatments against HIV/AIDS.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Bodeker, Gerard; Kabatesi, Donna; King, Rachel; Homsy, Jacques. 2000. Traditional Medicine and AIDS. Indigenous Knowledge (IK) Notes; No. 26. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10812 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication The Contribution of Traditional Herbal Medicine Practitioners to Kenyan Health Care Delivery : Results from Community Health-seeking Behavior Vignettes and a Traditional Herbal Medicine Practitioner Survey(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09)This study examines the role that Traditional Herbal Medicine Practitioners (THMPs) play in Kenya in the context of its human resources for health crisis. Two surveys were carried out to obtain evidence. The first documented the choices and perceptions of households in 36 communities on seeking medical assistance for eight common illnesses. The second survey asked 258 THMPs in five provinces to identify their knowledge sources, training, common illnesses treated, forms of payment, challenges, and concerns. Community-derived data show that households make reasonable decisions when faced with difficult circumstances: they prefer hospitals when these are affordable and seek care at clinics and health centers when hospitals are too far away. There is significant self-care and use of pharmacies, although THMPs are preferred for worms and lower respiratory problems. In general, THMPs provide an important though diminishing role in the provision of health care; they are not sought out in situations when inadequate care is dangerous, specifically infant diarrhoea and potential TB. Whilst Human Resources for Health (HRH) policies are urgently required to strengthen the conventional health workforce and increase their accessibility for the poor, policies should not ignore the findings from this study: many of the rural poor currently receive services from a traditional health workforce not linked to, or regulated by, the national government. This paper argues that formal recognition of their role by the government and by the conventional medical associations, and a targeted strategy to strengthen and build on the positive qualities evident in many traditional medicine practices may be beneficial to safeguarding the well-being of the poor.Publication Investing in Communities Achieves Results : Findings from an Evaluation of Community Responses to HIV and AIDS(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-01)The overview summarizes the evaluation of community responses (15 studies, including 11 evaluations carried out in 8 countries). It presents the evaluation questions, the methodology, the key results achieved by community responses along the continuum of prevention, treatment, care and support, and the resulting policy and programmatic implications. Before the scale-up of the international response to the AIDS pandemic, community responses in developing countries played a crucial role in providing services and care for those affected. This study is the first comprehensive, mixed-method evaluation of the impact of that response. The evaluation finds that community response can be effective at increasing knowledge of HIV, promoting social empowerment, increasing access to and use of HIV services, and even decreasing HIV incidence, all through the effective mobilization of limited resources. By effectively engaging with this powerful community structure, future HIV and AIDS programs can ensure that communities continue to contribute to the global response to HIV and AIDS.Publication The Potential Demand for an HIV/AIDS Vaccine in Brazil(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-12)This study assesses the potential demand by the public sector for a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine in Brazil and the costs of alternative strategies for a vaccination program. Brazil has a mature AIDS epidemic: the percent of the population living with HIV or AIDS (about 0.6 percent of adults) is not as high as in other severely affected developing countries, but infection rates in specific risk groups in the population are very high and HIV has spread beyond these groups into the general population of low-risk individuals. Preventive HIV/AIDS vaccines are still in the testing stage. The characteristics of the first vaccines developed, in terms of their efficacy, duration of effectiveness, ease of administration, and price, are still unknown. But the potential benefits of such a vaccine in Brazil would be high. The study reviews the cost and impact of HIV/AIDS in Brazil, in terms of disease and economic burden, as a proxy for the benefits of an HIV/AIDS vaccine. The epidemiology of AIDS and Brazil's experience with immunization coverage with other vaccines are used to assess the number of vaccines, delivery strategies, and possible costs of an HIV/AIDS immunization program in Brazil, assuming the availability of a 100 percent effective AIDS vaccine that lasts a lifetime under different pricing and dosing assumptions. A low-cost, highly effective vaccine would likely be affordable to an upper-middle-income country like Brazil and yield large benefits from a policy of universal, publicly subsidized immunization. But if prices are higher and the impact less favorable, the costs and effects would have to be compared with other AIDS prevention programs or other health interventions. Both political and economic considerations will likely figure into public policy on HIV/AIDS vaccination, when such a vaccine is developed.Publication HIV/AIDS: Traditional Healers, Community Self-assessment, and Empowerment(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2001-10)Most African countries have ratified the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, which states the rights to health, education, and promoting, safeguarding, and reinforcing mutual respect and tolerance. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, some 17.2 million have died of HIV/AIDS. The focus here is, therefore, on how traditional healers and indigenous knowledge can empower communities to deal with the social consequences of the pandemic, and, at the same time, be able to ensure that government resources are actually being used to their benefit. This Notes suggests a mini epidemiological study be undertaken by community member and for the community. The process of community-managed research could be facilitated by traditional healers, local NGOs to balance any attempt by local elites to dominate the process.Publication The New HIV/AIDS Program in Peru : The Role of Prioritizing and Budgeting for Results(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2015-01)This study aims to evaluate and develop recommendations on how the HIV/AIDS program in Peru can achieve better Value for Money. In Peru, the HIV epidemic concentrates mostly among men who have sex with men (MSM), with AIDS being the first cause of death for men ages 30-49 in 2010 and the second cause of death for women aged 25-34 (BOD, 2013). UNAIDS (2013) estimates there were 76,000 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA) in 2012, and this study estimates 67,000 PLWA in 2013. The Ministry of Health reports that 27,502 PLWA currently receive ART, a 43-48 percent coverage of eligible people, and 66 percent coverage of all diagnosed eligible individuals (WHO, 2013 guidelines). In 2011, there was a transition from international to domestic public funding, which increased from US$17.7 million in 2005-10 to US$57.8 million in 2011-13. The main achievements of the Peru HIV/AIDS program to date include: (i) collaboration with NGOs to provide ART; (ii) free provision of ART; (iii) educating poor women on mother to child HIV transmission; and (iv) access to reduced ARV prices through the PAHO Drug Fund. Major challenges include: (i) limited testing and laboratory capacity in the provinces; (ii) less than half of the budget is allocated to high-risk groups; (iii) wage bill issued by other programs and; (iv) limited number of community health workers (CHWs) for IEC.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Media and Messages for Nutrition and Health(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the past decade. However, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern. Rates of childhood undernutrition are particularly high in remote, rural, and upland areas. Media have the potential to play an important role in shaping health and nutrition–related behaviors and practices as well as in promoting sociocultural and economic development that might contribute to improved nutritional outcomes. This report presents the results of a media audit (MA) that was conducted to inform the development and production of mass media advocacy and communication strategies and materials with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition that would reach the most people from the poorest communities in northern Lao PDR. Making more people aware of useful information, essential services and products and influencing them to use these effectively is the ultimate goal of mass media campaigns, and the MA measures the potential effectiveness of media efforts to reach this goal. The effectiveness of communication channels to deliver health and nutrition messages to target beneficiaries to ensure maximum reach and uptake can be viewed in terms of preferences, satisfaction, and trust. Overall, the four most accessed media channels for receiving information among communities in the study areas were village announcements, mobile phones, television, and out-of-home (OOH) media. Of the accessed media channels, the top three most preferred channels were village announcements (40 percent), television (26 percent), and mobile phones (19 percent). In terms of trust, village announcements were the most trusted source of information (64 percent), followed by mobile phones (14 percent) and television (11 percent). Hence of all the media channels, village announcements are the most preferred, have the most satisfied users, and are the most trusted source of information in study communities from four provinces in Lao PDR with some of the highest burden of childhood undernutrition.Publication Economic Recovery(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-06)World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the world facing major challenges, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality and growing fragility and violence in many countries. He highlighted vaccines, working closely with Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF, the World Bank has conducted over one hundred capacity assessments, many even more before vaccines were available. The World Bank Group worked to achieve a debt service suspension initiative and increased transparency in debt contracts at developing countries. The World Bank Group is finalizing a new climate change action plan, which includes a big step up in financing, building on their record climate financing over the past two years. He noted big challenges to bring all together to achieve GRID: green, resilient, and inclusive development. Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, mentioned focusing on vulnerable people during the pandemic. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, focused on giving everyone a fair shot during a sustainable recovery. All three commented on the importance of tackling climate change.Publication South Asia Development Update, April 2024: Jobs for Resilience(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-02)South Asia is expected to continue to be the fastest-growing emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) region over the next two years. This is largely thanks to robust growth in India, but growth is also expected to pick up in most other South Asian economies. However, growth in the near-term is more reliant on the public sector than elsewhere, whereas private investment, in particular, continues to be weak. Efforts to rein in elevated debt, borrowing costs, and fiscal deficits may eventually weigh on growth and limit governments' ability to respond to increasingly frequent climate shocks. Yet, the provision of public goods is among the most effective strategies for climate adaptation. This is especially the case for households and farms, which tend to rely on shifting their efforts to non-agricultural jobs. These strategies are less effective forms of climate adaptation, in part because opportunities to move out of agriculture are limited by the region’s below-average employment ratios in the non-agricultural sector and for women. Because employment growth is falling short of working-age population growth, the region fails to fully capitalize on its demographic dividend. Vibrant, competitive firms are key to unlocking the demographic dividend, robust private investment, and workers’ ability to move out of agriculture. A range of policies could spur firm growth, including improved business climates and institutions, the removal of financial sector restrictions, and greater openness to trade and capital flows.Publication Mexico Poverty and Equity Assessment(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-02-20)This Mexico Poverty and Equity Assessment reviews the evidence about poverty and equity in Mexico over the last two decades, compares it to comparable international experience, and identifies a set of critical areas of policy intervention to answer the opening question. The report aims at contributing to an open conversation in Mexico about how to achieve this essential policy objective. This report postulates three main policy areas needed for poverty eradication in Mexico: inclusive growth, efficient social policy, and infrastructure to confront vulnerability. The report includes four sections, the first three of which collect evidence about poverty, social deprivations, and vulnerability and how the evolution of these three correlates to patterns of economic growth, social protection policy and territorial development. The fourth section provides some quantitative benchmarks of what it would take to eradicate extreme poverty in Mexico. Poverty in Mexico is defined not only in monetary terms, but also in a multidimensional manner that includes social deprivations. These are social deprivations that often define formal-vs-informal employment, so policy changes that close these carencias, as they are called in Mexico, will also reduce the informality gap. This report documents the evolution of poverty, social deprivations, and vulnerability to poverty. It explains the main forces that have driven this evolution and advises that many of these forces may not operate the same in the future as they did in the past. It provides the basis to argue that short to medium term extreme poverty eradication requires newer policy actions in terms of inclusive growth, more efficient social policy, and investments in physical and social infrastructure to reduce vulnerability. The report indicates that short to medium term eradication to extreme poverty is a major, but within reach, development challenge for Mexico.Publication Remarks at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-12)World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed biodiversity and climate change being closely interlinked, with terrestrial and marine ecosystems serving as critically important carbon sinks. At the same time climate change acts as a direct driver of biodiversity and ecosystem services loss. The World Bank has financed biodiversity conservation around the world, including over 116 million hectares of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas, 10 million hectares of Terrestrial Protected Areas, and over 300 protected habitats, biological buffer zones and reserves. The COVID pandemic, biodiversity loss, climate change are all reminders of how connected we are. The recovery from this pandemic is an opportunity to put in place more effective policies, institutions, and resources to address biodiversity loss.