The Crown that suit Tanzania Traditional Healers on HIV/AIDS

Clinical evidences given by the respondents who uses Muhanse M4® shows that Muhanse M4® has been effective to People Living With HIV/AIDS and hence has caused them to rely entirely on it.

NYASIGO KORNEL

It is often said that for a health education message to be understood and health seeking behaviour to be positively modified two things are required: the right message and the right messenger.

For the millions of Tanzanians, the right messenger remains the traditional health care practitioner. If we are going to have a significant impact upon the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic in Tanzania, it cannot be accomplished without the meaningful involvement of traditional health practitioners and traditional medicine organizations.

"We have been lobbying the government for the past two decades to incorporate traditional healers' knowledge and practice into the country's health delivery system, without much success. It has always been the norm and custom among Tanzania communities to use traditional medicine in whatever circumstances, and indeed, people infected with HIV/AIDS are among those who use them," says Mwanyika, the researcher scientist in the traditional medicine.

According to the Research and survey done by both Munufu Traditional Medicine and Research Clinic and National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Muhanse M4®
has been an remedial alternative to ARVs.

HIV-1 infection and AIDS is still a global public health problem particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa. Recent data still shows that 70 per cent of HIV infection has affected sub-Saharan countries with cumulative death of 11.5million.

In 2001 Tanzania had a total of 14,112 AIDS cases reported making an accumulation total of 144,498 cases since 1983. The Government estimates that the number of people living with HIV infection is probably five times that of the cumulative number of AIDS cases, making a total of 722,490, with the overall HIV prevalence of 9.6% for Tanzania mainland.

Dar-es-salaam City is one of the highly affected areas in the country; it is the second after Mbeya region. For many years now there has been no drug for the management of the disease. Due to scarcity of drugs People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) opted to use traditional health services.

If one wants to provide services to patients, one would utilize the providers closest to the community and the impact of the actual disease. Scientifically trained and supported traditional healers are an excellent cadre of Information.

In Tanzania about 60 per cent of the population depends on traditional medicine for the management of various diseases and or ailments including HIV/AIDS.

Traditional medicine is a system of medicine, which is not yet formalized, contrary to the formal health sector; although it shares with the formal health sector the common goal and that is “to improve the quality of health services of the Tanzanian population in line with the goal of the National Health Policy”.

Muhanse M4® has a long history in herbal medicine for boosting body immunity of people in Tanzania. Muhanse M4® is just a concoction of ready prepared powder from whole plant or its parts. The product is one among the many products produced and dispensed by Munufu traditional medicine and research clinic. The centre was established in 1987 at Ubungo. Since then the centre has been dispensing herbal medicines to PLWHA in order to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS.

ARVs are meant to improve the quality of human health so that the client continues with his/her day-to- day activities. 96.77 per cent responded to have resumed their routine activities and 3.23 per cent was not yet to attend her routine work. 83.87 per cent preferred Muhanse M4® to ARVs. They believed that the government program has its end political situation (influence) and availability of government funds.

“We have been on Muhanse M4® for many years now we have not experienced any side effects then why move to another with a lot of side effects,” says research done by NIMR.

The findings indicate that, Muhanse M4® has customers who have faith in it and more people are being informed about its importance. Clinical evidences given by the respondents who uses Muhanse M4® shows that Muhanse M4® has been effective to PLWHA and hence has caused them to rely entirely on it.

The Director of Tanzania Global Development Centre, Charles Senkondo says, “It is only logical that if one wants to transmit a health message to the general population of Tanzanians, one would use the messenger that is most trusted and respected by the population. If one wants to influence health seeking behaviour, it is most logical that one would enlist the help of those with great influence – again, the traditional healers of
Tanzania.

Nyasigo Kornel is a Communication Officer of Health and Poverty Resource Centre and he is an experienced journalist

Posted By: Nyasigo Kornel