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Should traditional healing practices be used to treat diseases like AIDS?

6 Comments

Much has been written about traditional African medicine. Some people praise traditional practices as being more holistic and community oriented, while others question the effectiveness of old practices, when compared to modern drugs and interventions.

  • Guest1

    What sorts of traditional healing practices can be used to treat AIDS?

    • Guest 2

      The problem is that the practices aren’t really healing AIDS but supporting it’s spread. Things I’ve seen are: cleansing- where women who lose husbands are then required to sleep with a man of the chief’s choosing to make her ‘pure’ , inheritance- where brother’s inherit their sister-in-laws (no matter what the husband died of), use of virgins to cleans people who have HIV, and even medicinal practices using albino body parts and herbs to cure the disease. Some local people even believe these things work to a point where they cross out their positive status in their Health IDs.

  • Guest 3

    I think tried and true, science-based, placebo tested medicine should be used to treat diseases like AIDS. I also think that the Pope’s stance on banning condom use is a HUGE reason that AIDS and HIV continues to spread through Africa. Much has been made of this in the media.

    http://articles.cnn.com/2009-03-17/world/cameroon.pope_1_people-in-sub-saharan-africa-aids-and-hiv-condoms?_s=PM:WORLD

    I don’t think there is much to debate. If the drugs work, use them. If condoms help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS they should be encouraged. This doesn’t mean that important cultural traditions have to be thrown out. But I think it’s sad that some people would defend practices that are literally killing thousands because it is more holistic or community oriented. It’s a false dichotomy to have to choose.

  • Mr. Rooney

    The following entry is from students in Mr. Rooney’s World Cultures class at Saint Basil Academy, who researched this Imagine Africa theme as part of the course.

    African civilizations have been using different methods of healing throughout the ages. Today, most traditional healing methods in Africa are supposedly able to cure and fight against diseases ranging from malaria to certain cancers and AIDS. Traditional healing methods have not been able to cure diseases such as AIDS, and those in African societies should not be using their old remedies for major medicinal work. AIDS is one of the leading causes of death in Africa, and orphanages are filled with children whose parents have died from the disease. Traditional African healers have been using herbs and natural remedies to try to prevent and cure serious diseases, but unfortunately there has not been one that has been known to cure them. Doctors in the United States have found medicines that have successfully been able to help people live with HIV/AIDS, but the remedies in African cultures are the same ones that have always been used, and are not getting the desired result. Traditional healers should not use their methods to treat diseases like AIDS because they have never been proven to work in that aspect, but instead should switch to Western types of medicines so that people can learn to live with and prevent the diseases.

  • Mr. Rooney

    The following entry is from students in Mr. Rooney’s World Cultures class at Saint Basil Academy, who researched this Imagine Africa theme as part of the course.

    Traditional healing practices should not be used to treat disease like AIDS because such diseases are extremely severe and have no cure. The traditional herbal and spiritual healing practices tend to work with common illnesses and complications, such as the common cold or a stomachache. However, the severity of diseases like AIDS is too great to treat with these traditional practices. Such practices may be comforting, but not as effective as modern medicine. These diseases are incurable and must be treated with advanced treatments. That is why traditional healing practices should not be used on serious diseases like AIDS.

  • Mr. Rooney

    The following entry is from students in Mr. Rooney’s World Cultures class at Saint Basil Academy, who researched this Imagine Africa theme as part of the course.

    In general, traditional healing practices should not be used to treat diseases like AIDS. This is because we now have new healing and better practices and medications. One example of this is medication. Africans should not be using the medication that they used in the past, because modern day medication is much more improved and safe. However, the people have taken traditional healing practices and modernized them by making them new and more efficient.
    On the other hand, traditional healing rituals and ceremonies can be one of the ways to treat diseases such as AIDS. These rituals can mentally help the patient feel better, or at least think that their health is improving. Healing ceremonies such as drumming rituals can help the sick person to relax and calm themselves, allowing them to heal.

 
 


Imagine Africa with the Penn Museum is a project of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
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