MEC wants traditional medicine in hospice

A few months back, Nkonyeni asked the management of the Pinetown-based Dream Centre whether it would be prepared to integrate traditional medicine at the state-subsidised hospice.

The hospice, which is almost entirely dependent on a government subsidy, agreed to explore the possibility.

On 15 August, Nkonyeni personally introduced Nhlavana Maseko, head of the Traditional Healers Organisation, to Dream Centre management. Maseko is a controversial figure, who has frequently condemned antiretroviral medication, and had an alliance with the vitamin seller Dr Matthias Rath aimed at ‘€œundermining the pharmaceutical business’€ of ARVs.

A few days after her visit, Nkonyeni established a task team chaired by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’€™s Professor Nceba Gqaleni to work with the Dream Centre staff to develop a protocol for the ‘€œintegration of traditional and western medicine’€.

The task team, made up of centre staff, government officials and traditional healers, has been meeting every Wednesday at the Dream Centre. Minutes from the first meeting indicate that every member of the task team was required to sign a confidentiality form preventing them from disclosing discussions.

A prominent member of task team is Zeblon Gwala, who sells uBhejane which he claims can cure AIDS, from an office a short walk from the Dream Centre. Gwala is adamant that uBhejane cannot be taken with antiretroviral medication, the only medicine scientifically proven to stop the growth of HIV in humans.

Ironically, Gwala’€™s own daughter ‘€“  his first uBhejane patient ‘€“ died at the Dream Centre some years ago, according to the centre’€™s management.

Gqaleni is involved in testing whether uBhejane has any effect on people with HIV and has signed a confidentiality agreement with Gwala which effectively means he cannot disclose how he is testing whether the concoction works.

‘€œTraditional medicine has not been integrated yet as we are at the beginning stages and this would just be a pilot,’€ said the Dream Centre’€™s Dr Portia Mkhize. ‘€œYou should ask the health department about this because this comes from their side.’€

Dream Centre general manager Neville de Witt said that while management was ‘€œopen to hearing from all role players’€, he admitted that there were ‘€œa lot of grey areas’€ regarding traditional medicine.

‘€œThere is no record-keeping or statistics about traditional medicine. Traditional medicine seems to have been handed down from ancestors, not tested and tried,’€ added De Witt.

He said that the task team is expected to present a plan to Dream Centre management by the end of the month, after which the medical staff will be involved in deciding whether the centre should become a pilot site for traditional medicine.

However, the Wednesday meetings have caused disquiet amongst the staff. Some staff members, particularly senior nurses, are said to support the initiative. But others said privately that they would consider resigning if traditional medicine is integrated as their patients were usually very sick and not in a position to make an informed choice.

There was also disquiet that government has apparently offered to increase its subsidy to the centre, should management agree to allow traditional medicine to be used on its premises, but De Witt said ‘€œthey haven’€™t made any hard and fast decision’€.

Dream Centre public relations manager Neil McDonald admitted that a number of patients who had recovered sufficiently to be discharged returned to the hospice some weeks later in a ‘€œbad way’€ after taking traditional medicine, particularly uBhejane.

Nkonyeni’€™s initiative comes shortly after she hosted a small closed meeting with a select few traditional healers, including Maseko and Gwala, at a beachfront hotel in May.  Delegates were given books and pamphlets condemning ARVs and doctors who prescribe. Ex-health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a close ally of the MEC, gave the keynote address at the invitation-only meeting that excluded local traditional healers.

In a brief reply that did not answer a number of queries, health department spokesperson Leon Mbangwa admitted that ‘€œa multi-stakeholder task team has been established to explore the possibility of introducing traditional medicine at the Dream Centre’€.

‘€œThe work of the task team will remain exploratory, strategic and pilot oriented rather than operational. The work is guided by the current legislative and policy framework on traditional medicine,’€ said Mbangwa.

Gqaleni declined to comment, saying simply that the task team was attempting to implement government policy on traditional medicine.

Treatment Action Campaign national spokesperson Lesley Odendal said KwaZulu-Natal seemed to be ‘€œjumping the gun as the guidelines on African traditional healers have just been published in draft form and may change’€.

‘€œTraditional healers have a role in combating HIV but we are concerned that a quack like Gwala, who is not a traditional healer and who has caused a lot of harm with uBhejane, is being included,’€ Odendal added.

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