Marseille 2007
| Abstract #431 - Alternative and traditional treatments for AIDS in the time of ART in resource-poor settings: a comparative analysis of recent anthropological studies | ||||
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Session: 8.2: Traditional and alternative approaches (Parallel) on Monday @ 11.00-12.30 in 5 Chaired by Jonathan Eflord, Marc Egrot Authors: Presenting Author: Prof Anita Hardon - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
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| Additional Authors: Prof Anita Hardon, | ||||
| Aim: In developing countries, biomedical treatments for AIDS have been introduced in settings where traditional medicine is popular and alternative medicine is developing. Though in the past five years biomedical AIDS medicines have become widely accessible through ART programs, anthropological fieldwork suggests that many people go on turning to alternative and traditional medicines. Amongst other reasons, are the non specific character of AIDS symptoms at early stages, the lack of availability and accessibility of testing and biomedical treatments in some locations, and the stigma related to AIDS clinics, and efficient marketing strategies by non-conventional medicines promoters and providers. Though important in terms of expenditure and persons involved, these uses have been seldom studied. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Two groups of social scientists, from Amsterdam and Aix-en-Provence Universities, have developed studies on this topic. Findings from recent fieldwork in Africa, South-East and East Asia, were presented and discussed in a recent meeting of NAARPS (Network on the Anthropology of ART in Resource Poor Settings), organised by ASSSR (Medical Anthropology Unit) and CRECSS, with ANRS funding. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Non-conventional medicines meet a demand in times of AIDS: they are presented as alternative for or complementary treatment to ART. Enquiries about these treatments show that they belong to several categories and must be considered within the context of health seeking behaviours in pluralistic health systems. Some HIV+ patients attend local traditional healers in a way that is not specific of AIDS; some are proposed alternative treatments by PLWA support groups; some happen to know these treatments through international AIDS conferences or internet. Various kinds of healing techniques and products may be used; many of them build their legitimacy on a combination of traditional and scientific references; some re-build tradition as a world reference. Some healers and treatments are limited to local use, when others products are industrially produced and sold at international level. Some products are distributed through usual formal or informal systems, when others are distributed through specific social patterns such as multi-level marketing systems or PLWA networks. Some products may be considered as used as self-medication, when others cannot be considered independently from the participation of users to specific groups and organizations more or less profit-focused. | ||||
| Discussion: Our analysis illustrates common trends and specific developments of non-conventional medicines across diverse settings. Many aspects deserve socio-anthropological studies, about related concepts and practices, professional activities and patients uses, roles of institutions and the building of legitimacy for these treatments and their providers/healers. Issues that were discussed during the meeting will be presented, such as labelling and categorization of treatments, relationships between the development of these treatments and the medical health system, or the implications for medical research, as well as reflexions on methodological and ethical aspects of studies in that field. These findings are relevant for public health, since treatment literacy and AIDS treatment programs should pay more attention to the benefits and risks of these alternative and traditional treatments from the perspective of users, and they should encourage informed decision making on the use of scare resources to pay for these treatments. | ||||
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