Traditional Medicine versus ARV Treatment

Zulus have lived with Herbal medicines and spiritual cures for hundreds of years. Even the modern pharmacies have some juicy concoctions to kill cancer, cure HIV, knock out headaches, and reverse diabetes. And that’s only in one slurry magical mix. Patients come in with numerous bloodletting scratches on their back to fight infections or with severely distended abdomens from enemas to cure constipation. Many enjoy a benign vegetable or Vitamin C tablet disguised as herbs.

Unfortunately some individuals prey on these beliefs to make a profit. Yesterday a 31 y.o. female came into the clinic with a successful 6 months of ARV treatment. That is, her viral load was decreasing and her CD4 count was above 200. It looked like another ARV success story. However two weeks ago her friends convinced her to see a so-called doctor in spiritual and traditional healthcare in Empangeni. Then after charging 500 rand (~$80) for a month supply of Vit C tabs, butcher’s root, activated charcoal, and unlabeled mystery slurry, this spiritual doctor persuaded the patient to discontinue her ARV treatment. The spiritual doctor explained to her that the mystery slurry would cure her of HIV, rendering the virus dead.

She chose the magical cure. I don’t know what swayed her to choose the expensive traditional medicine over the free ARVs. Maybe the spiritual doctor and friends were compelling; maybe she could not handle the side effects of ARV; maybe she didn’t want to be on a lifelong treatment; maybe she didn’t understand the ramifications of stopping her ARV treatment; maybe she felt so healthy that she believed that she no longer needed the treatment, or maybe the system failed her by not properly educating her.

Sadly for her, she stopped the ARV two weeks when she reappeared crying at the clinic, realizing enormous mistake or realizing she could not afford the herbal medicine. ARV treatment commands a disciplined daily lifelong regimen. Stopping any of the three medications can result in resistance, leaving the medication obsolete and worthless for the individual. Thus we had no choice to completely stop her ARV treatment. Like all other patients who default they must restart the entire process of education and labs from the beginning to prove her commitment to the treatment.