Medicinal plants and traditional treatment practices used in the management of HIV/AIDS clients in Mpigi District, Uganda
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Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Herbal Medicine
Abstract
HIV/AIDS is a relatively modern disease that has caused extensive morbidity, mortality and suffering
worldwide. Although modern laboratory methods for diagnosis and effective allopathic treatments
for HIV/AIDS are available there is limited documentation on practices and treatments used by
traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs) in the context of HIV/AIDS. We conducted this study to
determine how TMPs of Mpigi and Butambala districts in Uganda diagnose and treat HIV/AIDS and
to describe the materials they use. We used an ethnobotanical approach to interview TMPs. TMPs
diagnose HIV/AIDS from patients’ own disclosure, history of death of spouse or on the basis of
symptoms such as chronic fever. We found that the TMPs administer widely differing herbal
medicine formulations with little overlap of plant species to treat HIV/AIDS. The species used are
described in this paper. Herbal medicines are prepared in mixtures averaging 20 or more species,
and are administered orally and intermittently. Some herbal medicines were reported to have
adverse effects and/ or contraindications and the TMPs provided advice concerning their safe use to
their patients. Some patients are reported to use herbal medicines concomitantly with ARVs and the
clinical consequences of this practice are poorly understood. We conclude that TMPs are
experimenting with therapies for HIV/AIDS and that there is need to undertake rigorous efficacy and
safety studies as well as controlled clinical studies to validate TMPs’ therapeutic claims.
Description
Keywords
Drug discovery, Traditional treatments, Ethnobotany, Ethnomedicine
Citation
Nyamukuru, Antonia, Tabuti, John R.S, Lamorde, Mohammed, Kato, Benard, Sekagya, Yahaya, Aduma, Philip R., Medicinal plants and traditional treatment practices used in the management of HIV/AIDS clients in Mpigi District, Uganda.Journal of Herbal Medicine http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hermed.2016.10.001