ARVs, Lifelong Commitment: Traditional Medicinal Resources Holds Promise for Other Options

HIV/AIDS remains a critical global health issue. But although AIDS is a global health challenge, it has always assumed an African face, and eradicating it is predominantly an African challenge that threatens the continents ecosystems, growth, peace and security. The adverse economic and ecological effects of climate change are also deepening and worsening the situation of vulnerable social groups including, women, children, the aged, the poor and People Living With HIV/AIDS, and putting them at increased risk of infection or re-infection.
Indeed, AIDS is a huge global health challenge especially for poor countries and continues to reverse the gains made in key sectors of these economies. However, although substantial progress has been made in the provision of health care services for people living with HIV/AIDS including free ARVs, enormous gaps still exist. And for every person placed on treatment, two to three are newly infected. Globally, in 2007 alone there were 2.7 million new infections and only 31% of those who needed treatment received it. And while all currently available anti-HIV drugs suppress the virus, they cannot eliminate it. Furthermore, conventional anti-HIV therapy is a lifelong commitment, accompanied by many life altering and some potentially life threatening side effects.

Indeed, there is a pervasive myth that the answer to the HIV/AIDS challenge is availing conventional ARV’s. But while such programmes are absolutely necessary in times of crisis, they are less a component of adequate control model than an indication of its failure.

Furthermore, the current ARV’s procurement system has been shown not to be sustainable. Global scramble for ARVs as HIV in Asia and Eastern Europe rise and put pressure on production capacity, and “only nations that are pursuing self sufficiency in ARV’s production will assure their people of an uninterrupted supply and treatment.”

Indeed, we have a strategic choice to make; we can decide to ignore traditional medicinal resources and concentrate on availing ARVs and convectional drugs alone-with their side effects and create an enormous economic, social, and health loss.

Alternatively, poor communities can be assisted to adopt locally available cost effective medicinal resources whose validity and efficacy have been tested by communities for eons and sufficiently fight a growing cocktail of diseases in part due to proliferation of HIV/AIDS. Dealing with HIV/AIDS scourge without a reliable supply of drugs will be extremely complex, involve literally billions of dollars which poor countries cannot afford if we are going to rely exclusively on global level interventions with conventional drugs and ARV’s. However, we can sustainably meet these demands if evidence-based Traditional Medicinal Resources increasingly become tools of choice for these campaigns during the coming decades. The availability of alternative options is critical to the success of the war on HIV/AIDS globally, particularly for poor communities.

Indeed, to effectively combat HIV/AIDS we must be ready to use diverse non- conventional methods like Traditional Medicinal Resources TMR, in particular, in bridging these health gaps. The opportunity here would be to orient HIV/AIDS control with these resources and policy to expand access to health care services with strategies that are evidence based. A crucial gap in the war on HIV/AIDS has been lack of accelerated research and development of new products from Traditional Medicinal Resources which holds promise for other options.

Enormous benefits can be realized by availing these resources to enhance ability of health systems in more HIV/AIDS and poverty ravaged regions and communities to manage HIV/AIDS sustainably.

The decades-old-ways- in which those keeping watch over AIDS have relied less on local resources and more on faith in donors to fund the HIV/AIDS programme - and which have been less than successful - must be put into question. The signs from the recent global economic crisis and the adverse economic and ecological effects of climate change are also not terribly encouraging. Therefore, anything less than a new departure from this may not be tenable.

we must think beyond desperate, firefighting tactics that only assuage the suffering of the moment (and not for everybody eligible for assistance) to tangible and enduring solutions. Indeed, significant progress can be realized in the war against HIV/AIDS if we have the courage and single-mindedness to support non-conventional initiatives that have been shown to work like grain amaranth based nutraceuticals. Moreover, amaranth is a symbol of African indigenous culture and this is perhaps why in nearly all Kenyan communities, for instance, it has a local name.

— linus ndonga on 2010-06-25

You could not have put it better when you say that, “for the governments of countries where these funds are being utilized there
is a need for you to WAKE UP and build SUSTAINABLE HEALTH SYSTEMS so that
these gains can be sustained when the funds are eventually withdrawn. It
won’t keep coming like this forever, please plan for your population.”

Indeed, for global level initiatives for HIV/AIDS to have long-term impact on the livelihoods of the poor and marginalized communities, they must be supplemented by local initiatives and approaches that have been shown to work. But while global level interventions are needed to effectively resolve the HIV and AIDS menace in Sub-Saharan Africa, there should be increased recognition of the contribution of local initiatives, communities’ commitment and resources towards closing the gaps left by the global level interventions.
Strategic Poverty Alleviation Systems-SPAS, a not for profit organization, has been using indigenous resources, skills and knowledge to control HIV/AIDS in Kenya while reducing all forms of poverty in changing climate with very encouraging results.
However, a great many of the insights and lessons learnt by communities in their specific circumstances and which are important for building a more viable future without HIV/AIDS and poverty have not been translated into practice because there is too little common language between conventional medical practitioners, researchers, herbalists, agriculturalists etc.
Furthermore, previous strategies and approaches to control HIV and AIDS failed to recognize contribution of indigenous/traditional resources, as vital ingredients to a lasting solution for this devastating global health challenge. 
Moreover, inadequate institutional support that would allow for increased application of this model and making it readily availability to areas in dire need of these options at all times has also been a hindrance. Besides, this model has not caught the imagination of medical and scientific researchers, yet it seems to hold great promise in HIV and AIDS control

— linus ndonga on 2010-06-27