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Evelyn Hockstein

TIME/Polaris Images

June 20, 2006 - A nurse at the Apac hospital, Uganda, uses a traditional healing method -- the sap from a plant to treat an Aids related rash. In a country where doctors are rare and not often trusted, traditional medicine men are being tapped to fight AIDS and help get their patients on ARV's by combining modern medicine with traditional ways. Like many countries on the continent, Uganda has launched an ambitious program to supply every stricken citizen with ARVs. But with only one doctor for every 20,000 people, and far fewer in rural areas it's a major challenge. However, for every 150 Ugandans there's a practicing medicine man just a walk away. Now organizations are trying to use medicine men to teach about prevention and ARVs. The stakes couldn't be higher. With so many sick patients, and with the risk that misuse will spawn resistant strains, promoters of ARVs in Africa must hope that doctors, traditional healers and the patients of both will learn to get along. Decades of colonial repression has driven traditional medicine out of sights of orthodox doctors, but for about 80 percent of Ugandans, and much more in the countryside, it is the treatment of choice -- only integration of the two can save lives.

Evelyn Hockstein, "None," in POYi Archive, Item #45198, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/45198 (accessed November 22, 2024).