Manto cooks up new promise

2004-03-31 07:27

Antoinette Pienaar

Pretoria - The Medical Research Council (MRC) is expected to embark on a series of human clinical trials using seven traditional medicine mixtures for HIV/Aids.

Dr Gilbert Matsabisa, from the MRC, made this announcement at an international conference on traditional medicine in Benoni on Tuesday.

However, bound by confidentiality contracts, Matsabisa was not able to divulge the ingredients that make up these mixtures. Preliminary studies have apparently already been carried out on animals and an application has been submitted to the ethics council for tests to be conducted on people.

The first phase of the trials will be on healthy, HIV-negative people. This way, tests can be carried out to ensure the drugs are safe for human consumption.

HIV-positive

The second and third phase will, however, be on people that are HIV-positive.

Matsabisa said that according to the proposed protocol, HIV-positive participants would have to have CD4 counts of between 300 and 350. Patients in this category fall outside of the government's antiretroviral roll-out campaign.

Matsabisa said the Sutherlandia frutescents (cancer bush), which passed initial safety tests on monkeys a few years ago, is not among the initial mixtures to be used in the clinical trials.

In addition to this, Herbert Vilakazi, a sociology professor, said at the congress that Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had urged the MRC to formulate a research protocol on a traditional substance known as uBhejane in relation to fighting HIV/Aids. These trials are expected to start soon.

It is believed that a traditional herbalist, BZ Gwala, from Durban, has reported good results regarding this substance.

The minister said on Tuesday that the department hoped to one day be able to offer patients the choice of being treated with ARVs, traditional medicine or food supplements.

She said the days were over that traditional healers were treated like quacks and witches. She said traditional medicine was medicine in its own right and not second to Western medicine, and that she had given the MRC R6m to research it.

- Beeld