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African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 3, Issue 9 NEWSLETTER October 2008I NSIDE T HIS I SSUEHONORING THE AFRICAN TRADITIONAL HERBALISTHIV/AIDS - MALARIAWhy Africa Fears WesternMedicineBy Harriet A.WashingtonJuly 31, 2007Op-Ed ContributorTO Westerners, the repatriation of five nurses and a doctorto Bulgaria last week after more than eight years’imprisonment meant the end of an unsettling ordeal. Themedical workers, who in May 2004 were sentenced todeath on charges of intentionally infecting hundreds ofLibyan children with H.I.V., have been freed, and anotherinternational incident is averted.But to many Africans, the accusations, which have beenvalidated by a guilty verdict and a promise to reimbursethe families of the infected children with a $426 millionpayout, seem perfectly plausible. The medical workers’release appears to be the latest episode in a health carenightmare in which white and Western-trained doctors andnurses have harmed Africans — and have goneunpunished.Continued on page 21 Why Africa Fears Western Medicine3 Afrikan Spirituality-Challenges Facing Indigenous Knowledge4 Feature – Ancient African Medicine, Egypt and the World6 Feature – Med Schools, Journals Fight Big Pharma’s Sway7 Pathologists Believe They Have Pinpointed Achilles Heel of HIV8 Feature – WHO Murdered Africa14 Threat of World Aids Pandemic Among Heterosexuals is Over15 Common Gene makes Africans more Vulnerable to HIV16 Feature – What are Duffy Antigens?19 Malaria Drug Contributing to Antibiotic Resistance20 Malaria Fuels HIV Spread21 Scientists Map Genomes of Malaria Parasite25 Feature – The African Traditional Herbal Research Centre27Traditional Medicine Playing Important Role30 More Herbal Medicine Flood Ugandan Markets32 Ugandans Now Live Up to 50 Years33 Feature – Unified Field Theory of Disease36 Researcher Record Major Breakthrough Against Malaria42 HIV Hides from Drugs for Years44 Drug Factors Sub-Standard49 Farmers Reap Fortunes of Malaria Treatment54 Herb Of The Month – Bridelia micrantha & MoreWhat is the African TraditionalHerbal Research Clinic?We can make you healthy and wiseNakato LewisBlackherbals at the Source of the Nile, UG Ltd.The African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic locatedin Bukoto, Uganda is a modern clinic facility created toestablish a model space whereby indigenous herbalpractitioners and healers can upgrade and update theirskills through training and certification and respond tocommon diseases using African healing methods andtraditions in a modern clinical environment.Traditional healers are the major health labor resourcein Africa as a whole. In Uganda, indigenous traditionalhealers are the only source of health services for themajority of the population. An estimated 80% of thepopulation receives its health education and health carefrom practitioners of traditional medicine. They areknowledgeable of the culture, the local languages andlocal traditions. Our purpose is to raise publicawareness and understanding on the value of Africantraditional herbal medicine and other healing practicesin today’s world.The Clinic is open and operational. Some of theservices we offer are African herbal medicine,reflexology, acupressure, hot and cold hydrotherapy,body massage, herbal tonics, patient counseling, bloodpressure checks, urine testing (sugar), and nutritionalprofiles. We believe in spirit, mind and body. Spiritualcounseling upon request.Visit us also at www.Blackherbals.comHours: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday thru Friday10 am to 4:00 pm Saturday - Sundays – Closed-1-Traditional African Clinic – October 2008

Continued from page 1 – Why Africa Fears WesternMedicineThe evidence against the Bulgarian medical team, likeH.I.V.-contaminated vials discovered in their apartments,has seemed to Westerners preposterous. But to dismissthe Libyan accusations of medical malfeasance out ofhand means losing an opportunity to understand why adangerous suspicion of medicine is so widespread inAfrica.Africa has harbored a number of high-profile Westernmedical miscreants who have intentionally administereddeadly agents under the guise of providing health care orconducting research. In March 2000, Werner Bezwoda, acancer researcher at South Africa’s WitwatersrandUniversity, was fired after conducting medicalexperiments involving very high doses of chemotherapyon black breast-cancer patients, possibly without theirknowledge or consent. In Zimbabwe, in 1995, RichardMcGown, a Scottish anesthesiologist, was accused of fivemurders and convicted in the deaths of two infant patientswhom he injected with lethal doses of morphine. And Dr.Michael Swango, ultimately convicted of murder afterpleading guilty to killing three American patients withlethal injections of potassium, is suspected of causing thedeaths of 60 other people, many of them in Zimbabweand Zambia during the 1980s and ’90s. (Dr. Swango wasnever tried on the African charges.)These medical killers are well known throughout Africa,but the most notorious is Wouter Basson, a former headof Project Coast, South Africa’s chemical and biologicalweapons unit under apartheid. Dr. Basson was chargedwith killing hundreds of blacks in South Africa andNamibia, from 1979 to 1987, many via injected poisons.He was never convicted in South African courts, eventhough his lieutenants testified in detail and withconsistency about the medical crimes they conductedagainst blacks.Such well-publicized events have spread a fear ofmedicine throughout Africa, even in countries whereWestern doctors have not practiced in significantnumbers. It is a fear the continent can ill afford whenmedical care is already hard to come by. Only 1.3 percentof the world’s health workers practice in sub-SaharanAfrica, although the region harbors fully 25 percent of theworld’s disease. A minimum of 2.5 health workers isneeded for every 1,000 people, according to standards setby the United Nations, but only six African countrieshave this many.The distrust of Western medical workers has had directconsequences. Since 2003, for example, polio has beenon the rise in Nigeria, Chad and Burkina Faso becausemany people avoid vaccinations, believing that the vac-cines are contaminated with H.I.V. or are actuallysterilization agents in disguise. This would sound incrediblewere it not that scientists working for Dr. Basson’s ProjectCoast reported that one of their chief goals was to findways to selectively and secretly sterilize Africans.Such tragedies highlight the challenges facing even themost idealistic medical workers, who can find themselvesworking under unhygienic conditions that threaten patients’welfare. Well-meaning Western caregivers must sometimesuse incompletely cleaned or unsterilized needles, simplybecause nothing else is available. These needles can and dospread infectious agents like H.I.V. — proving thatWestern medical practices need not be intentional to bedeadly.Although the World Health Organization maintains that thereuse of syringes without sterilization accounts for only 2.5percent of new H.I.V. infections in Africa, a 2003 study inThe International Journal of S.T.D. and AIDS found that asmany as 40 percent of H.I.V. infections in Africa arecaused by contaminated needles during medical treatment.Even the conservative W.H.O. estimate translates to tens ofthousands of cases.Several esteemed science journals, including Nature, havesuggested that the Libyan children were infected in just thismanner, through the re-use of incompletely cleaned medicalinstruments, long before the Bulgarian nurses arrived inLibya. If this is the case, then the Libyan accusations ofiatrogenic, or healer-transmitted, infection are true. The actsmay not have been intentional, but given the history ofWestern medicine in Africa, accusations that they weredone consciously are far from paranoid.Certainly, the vast majority of beneficent Western medicalworkers in Africa are to be thanked, not censured. But thecanon of “silence equals death” applies here: We areignoring a responsibility to defend the mass of innocentWestern doctors against the belief that they are not treatingdisease, but intentionally spreading it. We should approachAfricans’ suspicions with respect, realizing that they areborn of the acts of a few monsters and of the deadlyconstraints on medical care in difficult conditions. Bycontinuing to dismiss their reasonable fears, we raise therisk of even more needless illness and death.Harriet A. Washington is the author of “MedicalApartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentationon Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present.”http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/opinion/31washington.html☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻-2-Traditional African Clinic – October 2008

AFRIKAN SPIRITUALITYCHALLENGES FACINGINDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGEBY: KABATABAZI PATRICIAENVIRONMENTALISTIt is commonly accepted that we are living in the“information age”. We are generators of vast knowledge.True as it may seem, it has been noted that the presentgeneration is actually losing more information than it isacquiring. Most shocking is the erosion of culturally basedknowledge represented by thousands of disappearing (RAFI,1997). For example, experts in linguistics note that half of the6000 languages spoken in the world will die out during the21 st century.As each language vanishes, tens of thousands of years ofcultural heritage and indigenous knowledge is lost. Loss ofthis cultural diversity is intricately linked with loss ofagricultural biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity puts at stakefood security and nutrition and overall agriculturaldevelopment.The movement of people is leading to loss of farmingcommunities, languages and indigenous cultures; all representthe erosion of human intellectual capital on massive scale.Development of sustainable agriculture systems dependsupon the innovative capacity of farmers, forest dwellers,pastoralists, and fisher-folk together with their accumulatedknowledge. Therefore, recognising, rewarding and protectingindigenous knowledge systems is critical for agriculturaldevelopment, food security and nutrition.Successful strategies should be formulated and implementedto save our indigenous knowledge through environmentalimpact assessment awareness/research, documentation, andpublication.“The responsibility of conserving our indigenous knowledgeis for all of us, white and black. We came from one person,our CREATOR.”In Africa, I salute our great ancestors who carried out studieson nature-given resources to name items as food, medicine,shelter materials etc for our use.This valuable intellect has been passed on from generation togeneration mainly in verbal communication. We are quite anintelligent race to preserve information in that way for manycenturies without any written text to be left behind for the________________________Managing Editor: Nakato LewisPUBLISHER: KIWANUKA LEWISPublished monthly and freely by BHSN for the African TraditionalHerbal Research ClinicThe traditional shrine as a symbol of our cultural historycoming generations, until writing finally reached Africafor us to access it and preserve the knowledge.The light of knowledge in Africa remained burning and itis still burning even through the interventions of Arabsand colonial masters. These external forces nearlyexterminated the pillars of African education in skills andtechnology. The intruders` referred to Africa knowledgeof skills and technology as satanic, primitive, backwardand outdated, even up to today.Given the nature of Lake Nalubale (Victoria) basinclimate, soil types and fresh waters, these three areresponsible for the wealth of biodiversity of plants,animals, ants, birds etc. People of the ancient past tookadvantage of the environment and were able to survivemany problems using the environment as answers toovercome their day to-day challenges.In Africa, each item is believed to belong to the Almighty,the creator, giver and overseer of all creations, visible andinvisible ones. And that invisible power of creation isbelieved to be the giver and taker of life. The second wayan African perceives nature is by way of association andidentification of themselves with in terms of totems,clans, etc.The third way Africans have looked at nature is bytaboos. It is taboo whenever a member in any one's givencommunity treated nature in a way perceived to result inspoiling or destruction of the status quo.The fourth way is to have sacred people, animals, rocks,caves, trees, rivers, mountains etc.The list is endless, but the important aspect in all theseefforts is to create controls and wise use and managementof nature- given resources.Recommendation: There is need to carryout research onthe culture aspect for sustainable use of natural resources.There should be functional and participatory research inthe world. There is a need to integrate our cultural aspectsinto modern ways for natural resource management.☻☻☻☻☻☻-3-Traditional African Clinic – October 2008

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 3, Issue 9 NEWSLETTER October 2008FEATURED ARTICLESAncient African Medicine, Egypt, (Khemit) and theWorldInterestingly, certain remedies prescribed by Egyptianphysicians were way ahead of modern anticipation. Forinstance, celery and saffron which were used forrheumatism are currently hot topics of pharmaceuticalresearch, and pomegranate was used to eradicatetapeworms, a remedy that remained in clinical use until50 years ago. Acacia is still used in cough remedieswhile aloes form a basis to soothe and heal skinconditions. The knowledge and the uses of essential oilsand resins were introduced to the world by the ancientEgyptians.” The early Egyptians appear to have beenthe first to recognize that stress could contribute toillness. They established sanitariums where peoplewould undergo “dream therapy” and treatments with“healing waters.It is now official! The western propaganda press and itsscholarly co-conspirators in the academia have finallyadmitted that African Khemit gave the world the gift ofmedical sciences as opposed to previously peddled lieswhich identify Greece as the origin of medicine.Imhotep, the Prince of Peace, the Egyptian inventor ofmedicine and healing was a real historical Africangenius who received the book of healing from themysterious forces of ancestral Africa.This book was later given to the world and it forms thebasis of modern medicine and surgery.The entire ancient world, including the ancient Greekscelebrated this venerable old man of wisdom who wassynonymous with ingenuity. Even Hippocrates, socalledGreek Father of Modern Medicine was a devoteeof Imhotep the Prince of Peace.Scientists examining documents dating back more than3,500 years have confirmed that the origins of modernmedicine lie in ancient Egypt and not with Hippocratesand the Greeks. The medical papyri were written in2,500 BC – 1,000, thousands of years beforeHippocrates was born.By Jide IwechiaJune 08, 2007The medical documents were first discovered in themid-19th century but then suppressed because itdemonstrated facts which were antithetical to theofficial but hypocritical racist attitudes which thenprevailed.According to one of the scientists, Dr JackieCampbell:“Classical scholars have always considered the ancientGreeks, particularly Hippocrates, as being the fathersof medicine but our findings suggest that the ancientEgyptians were practising a credible form of pharmacyand medicine much earlier,”“When we compared the ancient remedies againstmodern pharmaceutical protocols and standards, wefound the prescriptions in the ancient documents notonly compared with pharmaceutical preparations oftoday but that many of the remedies had therapeuticmerit.”“Many of the ancient remedies we discovered survivedinto the 20th century and, indeed, some remain in usetoday, albeit that the active component is nowproduced synthetically.”ImhotepImhotep was the world’s first named physician, andthe architect who built Egypt’s first pyramid. He isindisputedly the world’s first doctor, a priest, scribe,sage, poet, astrologer, a vizier and chief minister, toDjoser (reigned 2630–2611 BC), the second king ofEgypt’s third dynasty.An inscription on one of that king’s statues gives usImhotep’s titles as the “the prince of peace,”“chancellor of the king of lower Egypt,” the “first oneunder the king,” the “administrator of the greatmansion,” the “hereditary Noble,” the “high priest ofHeliopolis,” the “chief sculptor,” and finally the “chiefcarpenter”.Continued on page 5-4-Traditional African Clinic – October 2008

Continued from page 8 – Ancient African MedicineAs a builder, Imhotep is the first recorded masterarchitects. He was the first pyramid architect andbuilder, and among his works one counts the Djoser’sStep Pyramid complex at Saqqara, Sekhemkhet’sunfinished pyramid, and possibly the Edfu Temple.The Step Pyramid remains today one of the mostbrilliant architecture wonders of the ancient world andis recognized as the first monumental stone structure.Imhotep was also the first known physician, medicalprofessor and a prodigous writer of medical books. Asthe first medical professor, Imhotep is believed to havebeen the author of the Edwin Smith Papyrus in whichmore than 90 anatomical terms and 48 injuries aredescribed.He also founded a school of medicine in Memphis,possibly known as “Asklepion, which remainedfamous for two thousand years. All of this occurredsome 2,200 years before the Western Father ofMedicine Hippocrates was born.According to Sir William Osler, Imhotep was the:“..first figure of a physician to stand out clearly fromthe mists of antiquity.” Imhotep diagnosed and treatedover 200 diseases, 15 diseases of the abdomen, 11 ofthe bladder, 10 of the rectum, 29 of the eyes, and 18 ofthe skin, hair, nails and tongue. Imhotep treatedtuberculosis, gallstones, appendicitis, gout andarthritis. He also performed surgery and practicedsome dentistry. Imhotep extracted medicine fromplants. He also knew the position and function of thevital organs and circulation of the blood system. TheEncyclopedia Britannica says, “The evidence affordedby Egyptian and Greek texts support the view thatImhotep’s reputation was very respected in earlytimes. His prestige increased with the lapse ofcenturies and his temples in Greek times were thecenters of medical teachings.”Along with medicine, he was also a patron ofarchitects, knowledge and scribes. James HenryBreasted says of Imhotep:“In priestly wisdom, in magic, in the formulation ofwise proverbs; in medicine and architecture; thisremarkable figure of Zoser’s reign left so notable areputation that his name was never forgotten. He wasthe patron spirit of the later scribes, to whom theyregularly poured out a libation.”Imhotep was, together with Amenhotep, the onlymortal Egyptians that ever reached the position of fullgods. He was also associated with Thoth, the god ofwisdom, writing and learning, and with the Ibises,which was also associated with Thoth.Devotees bought offerings to his medical and spiritualschool in Saqqara, including mummified Ibises andsometimes, in the hope of being healed.He was later even worshipped by the early Christians asone with Christ who was made to adopt one of the titles ofImhotep, “the Prince of Peace”. The early Christians oftenappropriated those pagan forms and persons whoseinfluence through the ages had woven itself so powerfullyinto tradition that they could not omit them.He was worshiped in Greece where he was identified withtheir god of medicine, Aslepius. He was honored by theRomans and inscriptions praising Imhotep were placed onthe walls of Roman temples. Most surprisingly, he evenmanaged to find a place in Arab traditions, especially atSaqqara where his tomb is thought to be located.Materia MedicaThe ancient Egyptian physicians treated wounds withhoney, resins (including cannabis resin) and elementalmetals known to be antimicrobial. This practice is still avalid medical protocol even today.Again, just like in these modern times, the prescriptions forlaxatives included castor oil and colocynth and bulk branand figs were used to promote regularity.Other references show that colic was treated withhyoscyamus, which is still used today, and that cumin andcoriander were used as intestinal carminatives.Musculo-skeletal disorders were treated with rubefacientsto stimulate blood flow and poultices to warm and soothesimilar to the practices of modern practitioners of sportsmedicine.Interestingly, certain remedies prescribed by Egyptianphysicians were way ahead of modern anticipation. Forinstance, celery and saffron which were used forrheumatism are currently hot topics of pharmaceuticalresearch, and pomegranate was used to eradicatetapeworms, a remedy that remained in clinical use until 50years ago.Acacia is still used in cough remedies while aloes forms abasis to soothe and heal skin conditions. The knowledgeand the uses of essential oils and resins were introduced tothe world by the ancient Egyptians.”The early Egyptians appear to have been the first torecognize that stress could contribute to illness. Theyestablished sanitariums where people would undergo“dream therapy” and treatments with “healing waters.Altogether, around 50 percent of the plants used in ancientEgypt remain in clinical use today. Many of the medicaland surgical instruments such as knives and forceps haveContinued on page 13-5-Traditional African Clinic – October 2008

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 3, Issue 9 NEWSLETTER October 2008FEATURED ARTICLESMed Schools, Journals Fight Big Pharma’s SwayEven as new guidelines are set, potential for conflict remains, say manyTRENTON, N.J. - Just about every segment of themedical community is piling on the pharmaceuticalindustry these days, accusing drugmakers of deceivingthe public, manipulating doctors and putting profitsbefore patients.Recent articles and editorials in major medical journalsblast the industry. Medical schools, teaching hospitalsand physician groups are changing rules to limit theinfluence of pharmaceutical sales reps. And three topeditors of the prestigious New England Journal ofMedicine last month publicly sided against the drugindustry in a U.S. Supreme Court case over whetherpatients harmed by government-approved medicinesmay still sue in state courts.As more voices have called for change, new guidelinesfor how drugmakers and doctors should interact arecoming from both industries, and doctors say someabuses of the past have ended. But the industries’dealings remain fraught with potential conflict becausethe sectors depend on each other so much — medicineon drugmakers’ research dollars and drugmakers on thecredibility researchers give them.“The influence that the pharmaceutical companies, thefor-profits, are having on every aspect of medicine ... isso blatant now you’d have to be deaf, blind and dumbnot to see it,” said Journal of the American MedicalAssociation editor Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, a longtimeindustry critic. “We have just allowed them to takeover, and it’s our fault, the whole medical community.”In an April editorial in her journal, DeAngelis notedtwo studies indicated past reports about Merck & Co.’swithdrawn pain reliever Vioxx frequently were pennedby ghostwriters and that reports on some Vioxx studiesminimized the risk of death. Merck has denied thecharges.“Manipulation of studies and publications by thepharmaceutical and medical device industries is eitherincreasing or there has been more exposure of thesepractices,” she wrote.The Associated PressSeptember 10, 2008“We should say "Enough!"She said industry influence includes swaying doctorsand medical students to their brands with gifts, fundingresearch at top teaching hospitals but keeping control ofthe studies and results, failing to disclose study authors’conflicts of interest, even taking over the continuingmedical education system for doctors by runningcourses on new treatments. Critics say such courses aretaught by company-paid speakers who often promoteexpensive new drugs over older, cheaper ones.“We should all get together and say, ’Enough!”’DeAngelis said.Already, top journals are listing study authors’ conflictsof interest, and dozens of medical schools and medicalspecialty societies are barring gifts to doctors andlimiting their other financial ties to industry. Someschools bar professors from being paid drug company’sspeakers. And one expert noted drugmakers havestopped giving cash prizes to medical students forpresenting favorable research on their drugs atconferences.Still, no one is suggesting anything as drastic as cuttingoff industry funding for academic research on newdrugs. Those billions help pay lab and other expenses atvirtually all U.S. teaching hospitals, medical schools andaffiliated practices, while giving the drugs’ developersthe cachet of having big-name academic researchersrunning their studies.The industry’s trade group, in an apparent response, inJuly revised its 2002 “Code on Interactions with HealthcareProfessionals” to ban giving out pens, mugs andother noneducational gifts, taking doctors to restaurantsand giving them tickets for shows or sports events.Bringing meals to their offices and donating anatomicalmodels and textbooks will still be allowed when thevoluntary code takes effect in January.-6-Traditional African Clinic – October 2008“America’s pharmaceutical companies devote manyyears and billions of dollars to researching and develop-Continued on page 7

Continued from page 6 – Med Schools, Journals Fight BigPharmaing life-saving medicines,” and help drive progress andeconomic growth, said Diane Bieri, general counsel forPharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.“We will always face criticism and at times deserve it butour companies remain committed to listening to andlearning from parties with divergent points of views.”Hollie Gilroy, spokeswoman for the HealthCare Instituteof New Jersey, a trade group including many topdrugmakers, said the industry is an easy target, butcriticisms about gifts to doctors, beyond logo-bearingpens and similar items, are either outdated orexaggerated. She said the industry is quick to police itselfand tries to keep high ethical standards when dealing withhealth-care professionals.“There is no industry far and away that has been moregenerous than the pharmaceutical industry,” Gilroyadded, noting companies give away medication samples,fund large prescription assistance programs for the poor,have helped African countries get AIDS medications, anddonate drugs and medical supplies after major disasters.But pharmaceutical analyst Steve Brozak of WBBSecurities said drugmakers will find ways to adapt to newrules.“The earlier you can hook one of these doctors, the moreloyal they are” to a brand, Brozak said.Medical groups have been fighting industry influenceharder since a 2006 JAMA editorial by 11 prominentdoctors urged teaching hospitals to lead in cleaning upconflicts of interest between medicine and industry.New Web site shows med schools policiesDavid Rothman, president of the Institute on Medicine asa Profession, said about one-fourth of U.S. medicalschools now have policies on industry gifts “that reallypass muster.” Some bar sales reps from giving doctorsdrug samples — but allow donations to a central supplyoffice — and don’t let them wander their halls to speak todoctors.“You’re not being bribed, you’re being gifted,” doctorsmay think, but industry freebies influence prescribingpatterns, Rothman said.On Wednesday, his group launched the first publicdatabase showing detail conflict of interest policies atmost of the 125 U.S. academic medical centers.At University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, possiblythe strictest, pharmaceutical reps since February have hadto get a perfect score on an online training program aboutits rules to get appointments. Some reps have beenwarned about infractions, but none have been banned,said Dr. Barbara Barnes, head of industry relations.Rothman said there’s a new effort to “clean up”continuing medical education of doctors, the onlyprofessionals he knows who don’t pay for it themselves.In June, the Association of American Medical Collegesput out guidelines that bar drugmakers from paying forcontinuing medical education sessions on specific topicsbut allow donations to a central fund.The Council of Medical Specialty Societies, whichrepresents 32 specialty groups, this summer, startedcollecting each group’s best practices on disclosure andlimitations on speaking and other activities by theirofficers. Council CEO Dr. Norman Kahn said a newcouncil policy should be ready in November.Meanwhile, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a frequentindustry critic, is sponsoring a bill to require drugmakersto report all payments to doctors — from buying meals toflying them to conferences at resorts.Doctors say there’s more to be done, but see an impact.Dr. Marc Siegel, an internist and associate professor atNew York University School of Medicine, said theschool has fewer drugmaker-sponsored events, and he nolonger gets offers of baseball tickets or paid junkets as aconsultant at a doctors’ meeting — things he turned downanyway. He said some colleagues no longer let drug salesreps in their offices, but he does.“I don’t mind — I like my staff to get a free lunch,”Siegel said. “I don’t think it influences one iota what Iprescribe.”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26622463/☻☻☻☻☻☻Pathologists Believe TheyHave Pinpointed AchillesHeel of HIVScienceDaily (July 16, 2008) — Human ImmunodeficiencyVirus (HIV) researchers at The University ofTexas Medical School at Houston believe they haveuncovered the Achilles heel in the armor of the virus thatcontinues to kill millions.The weak spot is hidden in the HIV envelope proteingp120. This protein is essential for HIV attachment tohost cells, which initiate infection and eventually lead toAcquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS.Normally the body’s immune defenses can ward offviruses by making proteins called antibodies that bind thevirus. However, HIV is a constantly changing andmutating virus, and the antibodies produced afterContinued on page 10-7- Traditional African October 2008

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 3, Issue 9 NEWSLETTER October 2008FEATURED ARTICLESWHO MURDERED AFRICA - ExcerptsBy William Campbell Douglas, M.D.There is no question mark after the title of this articlebecause the title is not a question. It's a declarativestatement. WHO, the World Health Organization,murdered Africa with the AIDS virus. That's aprovocative statement, isn't it?The answers to this little mystery, Murder on theWHO Express, will be quite clear to you by the endof this report. You will also understand why the othersuspects, the homosexuals, the green monkey and theHaitians, were only pawns in this virocidal attack onthe world. If you believe the government propagandathat AIDS is hard to catch then you are going to dieeven sooner than the rest of us. The common cold is avirus. Have you ever had a cold? How did you catchit? You don't really know, do you? If the cold viruswere fatal how many people would there be left inthe world?Yellow fever is a virus. You catch it from mosquitobites. Malaria is a parasite also carried bymosquitoes. It is many times larger than the AIDSvirus (like comparing a pinhead to a moose head) yetthe mosquito easily carries this large organism toman.The tuberculosis germ, also, much larger than theAIDS virus, can be transmitted by fomites (inanimateobjects such as towels). The AIDS virus can live foras long as 10 days on a dry plate. You can'tunderstand this murder mystery unless you learn alittle virology.Many viruses grow in animals and many grow inhumans, but most of the viruses that affect animalsdon't affect humans. There are exceptions, of course,such as yellow fever and small pox.There are some viruses in animals that cause verylethal cancer in those animals, but do not affect manor other animals. The bovine leukemia virus (BLV),for example, is lethal to cows but not humans. Thereis another virus that occurs in sheep called sheepvisna virus which is also non-reactive in man. Thesedeadly viruses are "retro viruses" meaning that theycan change the genetic composition of cells that theyenter.The World Health Organization, in published articles,called for scientists to work with these deadly agents andattempt to make a hybrid virus that would be deadly tohumans: "And attempt should be made to see if virusescan in fact exert selective effects on immune function.The possibility should be looked into that the immuneresponse to the virus itself may be impaired if theinfecting virus damages, more or less selectively, the cellresponding to the virus."That's AIDS. What the WHO is saying in plain English is"Let's cook up a virus that selectively destroys the T-cellsystem of man, an acquired immune deficiency."Why would anyone want to do this? If you destroy the T-cell system of man you destroy man. Is it even remotelypossible that the World Health Organization would wantto develop a virus that would wipe out the human race?If their new virus creation worked, the WHO stated, thenmany terrible and fatal infectious viruses could be madeeven more terrible and more malignant. Does this strikeyou as being a peculiar goal for a health organization?Sometimes Americans believe in conspiracies andsometimes they don't. Was there a conspiracy to killPresident Kennedy? Twenty-five years later the debatestill continues, and people keep changing their minds.One day it's yes, the next day it's no-depending on whatwas served for breakfast or how the stock market did theday before.But what about the green monkey? Some of the bestvirologist in the world and many of those directlyinvolved in AIDS research, such as Robert Gallo and LucMontagnier, have said that the green monkey may be theculprit. You know the story: A green monkey bit a nativeon the ass and, bam-AIDS all over central Africa.There is a fatal flaw here. It is very strange. BecauseGallo, Montagnier and these other virologists know thatthe AIDS virus doesn't occur naturally in monkeys.Continued on page 9-8- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 8 – WHO Murdered AfricaIn fact it doesn't occur naturally in any animal.AIDS started practically simultaneously in the UnitedStates, Haiti, Brazil, and Central Africa. (Was thegreen monkey a jet pilot?) Examination of the genestructure of the green monkey cells proves that it is notgenetically possible to transfer the AIDS virus frommonkeys to man by natural means. Because of theartificial nature of the AIDS virus it will not easilytransfer from man to man until it has become veryconcentrated in the body fluids through repeatedinjections from person to person, such as drug addicts,and through high multiple partner sexual activity Afterrepeated transfer it can become a "natural" infectionfor man, which it has.Dr. Theodore Strecker's research of the literatureindicates that the National Cancer Institute incollaboration with the World Health Organizationmade the AIDS virus in their laboratories at FortDetrick (now NCI). They combined the deadlyretroviruses, bovine leukemia virus and sheep visnavirus, and injected them into human tissue cultures.The result was the AIDS virus, the first humanretrovirus known to man and now believed to be 100percent fatal to those infected.The momentous plague that we now face wasanticipated by the National Academy of Sciences(NAS) in 1974 when they recommended that"Scientists throughout the world join with themembers of this committee in voluntarily deferringexperiments (linking) animal viruses." What the NASis saying in carefully guarded English is: "For God'ssake, stop this madness!"The creation of the AIDS virus by the WHO was notjust a diabolical scientific exercise that got out of hand.It was a cold-blooded successful attempt to create akiller virus which was then used in a successfulexperiment in Africa. So successful in fact that most ofcentral Africa may be wiped out, 75,000,000 deadwithin 3-5 years.It was not an accident. It was deliberate. In theFederation Proceedings of the United States in 1972,WHO said: "In the relation to the immune response anumber of useful experimental approaches can bevisualized." They suggested that a neat way to do thiswould be to put their new killer virus (AIDS) into avaccination program, sit back and observe the results."This would be particularly informative in siblings,"they said. That is, give the AIDS virus to brothers andsisters and see if they die, who dies first, and of what,just like using rats in a laboratory.They used smallpox vaccine for their vehicle and thegeographical sites chosen in 1972 were Uganda and otherAfrican states, Haiti, Brazil and Japan. The present orrecent past of AIDS epidemiology coincides with thesegeographical areas.Dr. Strecker points out that even if the African greenmonkey could transmit AIDS to humans, the presentknown amount of infection in Africa makes it statisticallyimpossible for a single episode, such as a monkey bitingsomeone, to have brought this epidemic to this point. Thedoubling time of the number of people infected, aboutevery 14 months, when correlated with the first knowncase, and the present known number of cases, provebeyond a doubt that a large number of people had to havebeen infected at the same time. Starting in 1972 with thefirst case from our mythical monkey and doubling thenumber infected from that single source every 14 monthsyou get only a few thousand cases. From 1972 to 1987 is15 years or 180 months. If it takes 14 months to doublethe number of cases then there would have been 13doublings, 1 then 2, then 4, then 8, etc. In 15 years, froma single source of infection there would be about 8,000cases in Africa, not 75 million AIDS infected people. Weare approaching World War II mortality statistics herewithouta shot being fired.Dr. Theodore A. Strecker is the courageous doctor whounraveled this conundrum, the greatest murder mystery ofall time. He should get the Nobel Prize but he'll be luckynot to get "suicided." ("Prominent California doctor tieshis hands behind his back, hangs himself, and jumps from20th floor. There was no evidence of foul play.") Streckerwas employed as a consultant to work on a healthproposal for Security Pacific Bank. He was to estimatethe cost of their health care for the future. Should theyform a health maintenance organization? (HMO) was amajor issue. After investigating the current medicalmarket he advised against the HMO because he foundthat the AIDS epidemic will in all probability bankruptthe nation's medical system.He became fascinated with all the peculiar scientificanomalies concerning AIDS that kept cropping up. Whydid the "experts" keep talking about green monkeys andhomosexuals being the culprits when it was obvious thatthe AIDS virus was a man-made virus? Why did they saythat it was a homosexual and drug-user disease when inAfrica it was obviously a heterosexual disease? If thegreen monkey did it, then why did AIDS explodepractically simultaneously in Africa, Haiti, Brazil, theUnited States and southern Japan?-9- Traditional African Clinic October 2008Why, when it was proposed to the National Institute ofHealth that the AIDS virus was a combination of twobovine or sheep viruses cultured in human cells in aContinued on page 11

Continued from page 7–Pathologists Believe They Have pinpointedA. Heel of HIVinfection do not control disease progression to AIDS. Forthe same reason, no HIV preventative vaccine thatstimulates production of protective antibodies isavailable.The Achilles heel, a tiny stretch of amino acids numbered421-433 on gp120, is now under study as a target fortherapeutic intervention. Sudhir Paul, Ph.D., pathologyprofessor in the UT Medical School, said, “Unlike thechangeable regions of its envelope, HIV needs at leastone region that must remain constant to attach to cells. Ifthis region changes, HIV cannot infect cells.Equally important, HIV does not want this constantregion to provoke the body’s defense system. So, HIVuses the same constant cellular attachment site to silenceB lymphocytes - the antibody producing cells. The resultis that the body is fooled into making abundant antibodiesto the changeable regions of HIV but not to its cellularattachment site. Immunologists call such regionssuperantigens. HIV’s cleverness is unmatched. No othervirus uses this trick to evade the body’s defenses.”Paul is the senior author on a paper about this theory in aJune issue of the journal Autoimmunity Reviews.Additional data supporting the theory are to be presentedat the XVII International AIDS Conference Aug. 3-8 inMexico City in two studies titled “Survivors of HIVinfection produce potent, broadly neutralizing IgAsdirected to the superantigenic region of the gp120 CD4binding site” and “Prospective clinical utility andevolutionary implication of broadly neutralizing antibodyfragments to HIV gp120 superantigenic epitope.”First reported in the early 1980s, HIV has spread acrossthe world, particularly in developing countries. In 2007,33 million people were living with AIDS, according to areport by the World Health Organization and the UnitedNations.Paul’s group has engineered antibodies with enzymaticactivity, also known as abzymes, which can attack theAchilles heel of the virus in a precise way. “The abzymesrecognize essentially all of the diverse HIV forms foundacross the world. This solves the problem of HIVchangeability. The next step is to confirm our theory inhuman clinical trials," Paul said.Unlike regular antibodies, abzymes degrade the viruspermanently. A single abzyme molecule inactivatesthousands of virus particles. Regular antibodies inactivateonly one virus particle, and their anti-viral HIV effect isweaker.“The work of Dr. Paul’s group is highly innovative. Theyhave identified antibodies that, instead of passively bind ingto the target molecule, are able to fragment it and destroyits function. Their recent work indicates that naturallyoccurring catalytic antibodies, particularly those of the IgAsubtype, may be useful in the treatment and prevention ofHIV infection,” said Steven J. Norris, Ph.D., holder of theRobert Greer Professorship in the Biomedical Sciences andvice chair for research in the Department of Pathology andLaboratory Medicine at the UT Medical School at Houston.The abzymes are derived from HIV negative people withthe autoimmune disease lupus and a small number of HIVpositive people who do not require treatment and do not getAIDS. Stephanie Planque, lead author and UT MedicalSchool at Houston graduate student, said, “We discoveredthat disturbed immunological events in lupus patients cangenerate abzymes to the Achilles heel of HIV. The humangenome has accumulated over millions of years ofevolution a lot of viral fragments called endogenousretroviral sequences. These endogenous retroviralsequences are overproduced in people with lupus, and animmune response to such a sequence that resembles theAchilles heel can explain the production of abzymes inlupus. A small minority of HIV positive people also startproducing the abzymes after decades of the infection. Theimmune system in some people can cope with HIV afterall.”Carl Hanson, Ph.D., who heads the Retrovirus DiagnosticSection of the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory ofthe California Department of Public Health, has shown thatthe abzymes neutralize infection of human blood cells bydiverse strains of HIV from various parts of the world.Human blood cells are the only cells that HIV infects.“This is an entirely new finding. It is a novel antibody thatappears to be very effective in killing the HIV virus. Themain question now is if this can be applied to developingvaccine and possibly used as a microbicide to preventsexual transmission,” said David C. Montefiori, Ph.D.,director of the Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine Research &Development at Duke University Medical Center. Theabzymes are now under development for HIVimmunotherapy by infusion into blood. They could also beused to guard against sexual HIV transmission as topicalvaginal or rectal formulations.“HIV is an international priority because we have nodefense against it,” Paul said. “Left unchecked, it will likelyevolve into even more virulent forms. We have learned alot from this research about how to induce the production ofthe protective abzymes on demand. This is the Holy Grailof HIV research -- development of a preventative HIVvaccine.”Continued on age 11-10- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 10 – Pathologists believe they havepinpointed Achilles. Heel of HIVMajor contributors to the research from the UT MedicalSchool include Yasuhiro Nishiyama, Ph.D., and HiroakiTaguchi, Ph.D., both with the Department of Pathologyand Laboratory Medicine, and Miguel Escobar, M.D., ofthe Department of Pediatrics. Maria Salas and Hanson,both with the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory,contributed. The research was funded by the NationalInstitutes of Health and the Texas Higher EducationCoordinating Board.Journal references:Planque et al. Catalytic antibodies to HIV: Physiological roleand potential clinical utility. Autoimmunity Reviews, 2008; 7(6): 473 DOI: 10.1016/j.autrev.2008.04.002Stephanie Planque et al. Catalytic antibodies to HIV:Physiological role and potential clinical utility. AutoimmunityReviews, 2008; 7 (6): 473 DOI: 10.1016/j.autrev.2008.04.002Adapted from materials provided by University of Texas HealthScience Center at Houston.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715165520.htm☻☻☻☻☻☻Continued from page 9 – WHO Murdered Africalaboratory, did they say it was "bad science" when that'sexactly what occurred?As early as 1970 the World Health Organization wasgrowing these deadly animal viruses in human tissuecultures. Cedric Mims, in 1981, said in a published articlethat there was a bovine virus contaminating the culturemedia of the WHO. Was this an accident or a "nonaccident"?If it was an accident why did WHO continueto use the vaccine?This viral and genetic death bomb, AIDS, was finallyproduced in 1974. It was given to monkeys and they diedof pneumocystis carni which is typical of AIDS.Dr. R. J. Biggar said in Lancet. "...The AIDS agent...could not have originated de novo." That means in plainEnglish that it didn't come out of thin air. AIDS wasengineered in a laboratory by virologist. It couldn'tengineer itself. As Doctor Strecker so colorfully puts it:"If a person has no arms or legs and shows up at a partyin a tuxedo, how did he get dressed? Somebody dressedhim."There are 9,000 to the fourth power possible AIDSviruses. (There are 9,000 base pairs on the genome.) Sothe fun has just begun. Some will cause brain rot similarto the sheep virus, some leukemia-like diseases from thecow virus and some that won't do anything. So the viruswill be constantly changing and trying out new esotericdiseases on hapless man. We're only at the beginning.Because of the trillions of possible genetic combinationsthere will never be a vaccine. Even if they could develop avaccine they would undoubtedly give us something equallybad as they did with the polio vaccine (cancer of the brain),the swine flu vaccine (a polio-like disease), the smallpoxvaccine (AIDS), and the hepatitis vaccine (AIDS).There are precedents. This is not the first time the virologisthave brought us disaster. SV-40 virus from monkey cellcultures contaminated polio cultures. Most people in their40's are now carrying this virus through contaminated polioinoculations given in the early 60's. It is known to causebrain cancer which explains the increase in this disease thatwe have seen in the past ten years.This is the origin of the green monkey theory. The poliovaccine was grown on green monkey kidney cells. Sixtyfourmillion Americans were vaccinated with SV-40-contaminated vaccine in the 60's. An increase in cancer ofthe brain, possibly multiple sclerosis, and God only knowswhat else the tragic result is. The delay between vaccinationand the onset of cancer with this virus is as long as 20-30years. 1965 plus 20 equals 1985. Get the picture?The final piece of the puzzle is how AIDS devastated thehomosexual population in the United States. It wasn't fromsmallpox vaccination as in Africa because we don't do thatany more. There is no smallpox in the United States and sovaccination was discontinued.Although some AIDS has been brought to the United Statesfrom Haiti by homosexuals, it would not be enough toexplain the explosion of AIDS that occurred simultaneouslywith the African and Haitian epidemics.The AIDS virus didn't exist in the United States before1978. You can check back in any hospital and no storedblood samples can be found anywhere that exhibits theAIDS virus before that date.What happened in 1978 and beyond to cause AIDS to burstupon the scene and devastate the homosexual segment ofour population? It was the introduction of the hepatitis Bvaccine which exhibits the exact epidemiology of AIDS.A Doctor W. Szmuness, born in Poland and educated inRussia, came to this country in 1969-Szmuness'simmigration to the U.S. was probably the most fatefulimmigration in our history. He, by unexplained process,became head of the New York City blood bank. (How doesa Russian trained doctor become head of one of the largestblood banks in the world? Doesn't that strike you aspeculiar?)-11- Traditional African Clinic October 2008He set up the rules for the hepatitis vaccine studies. Onlymales between the ages of 20 and 40, who were notmonogamous, would be allowed to participate in this study.Can you think of any reason for insisting that all experi-Continued on page 12

Continued from page 11 – WHO Murdered Africamentees be promiscuous?The Centers for Disease Control reported in 1981 thatfour percent of those receiving the hepatitis-vaccinewere AIDS-infected. In 1984 they admitted to 60percent. Now they refuse to give out figures at allbecause they don't want to admit that 100 percent ofhepatitis vaccine receivers are infected with AIDS.Where is the data on the hepatitis vaccine studies?FDA? CDC? No, the U.S Department of Justice has itburied where you will never see it. What has thegovernment told us about AIDS?* It's a homosexual disease-WRONG. (Thehomosexuals certainly spread it but the primaryresponsibility wasn't theirs.)* It's related to anal intercourse only-WRONG.* Only a small percentage of those testing positive forAIDS would get the disease-WRONG.* It came from the African green-back monkey-WRONG.* It came from the cytomegalovirus-WRONG.* It was due to popping amyl nitrate with sex-WRONG.* It was started 400 years ago by the Portuguese-WRONG. (It started in 1972.)* You can't get it from insects-WRONG.* The virus can't live outside the body-WRONG.The head of the Human Leukemia Research Group atHarvard is a veterinarian. Dr. O. W. Judd, InternationalAgency for Research on Cancer, the agency thatrequested the production of the virus in the first place,is also a veterinarian. The leukemia research he isconducting is being done under the auspices of a schoolof veterinary medicine.Now there is nothing wrong with being a vet but, as wehave pointed out, the AIDS virus is a human virus. Youcan't test viruses in animals and you can't testleukemias in them either. It doesn't work. So whywould your government give Judd, a veterinarian, eightand one-half million dollars to study leukemia in aveterinary college? As long as we are being used asexperimental animals, maybe it's appropriate.The London Times should be congratulated foruncovering the smallpox-AIDS connection. But theirexpose was very misleading. The article states that theAfrican AIDS epidemic was caused by the smallpoxvaccine "triggering" AIDS in those vaccinated.Dr. Robert Gallo, who has been mixed up in some verystrange scientific snafus, supports this theory. Whether theinfection of 75 million Africans was deliberate oraccidental can be debated but there is no room for debateabout whether the smallpox shots; "awakened theunsuspected virus infection." There is absolutely noscientific evidence that this laboratory-engineered virus waspresent in Africa before the World Health Organizationdescended upon these hapless people in 1967 with theirdeadly AIDS-laced vaccine. The AIDS virus didn't comefrom Africa. It came from Fort Detrick, Maryland, U.S.A.The situation is extremely desperate and the medicalprofession is too frightened and cowed (as usual) to takeany action. Dr. Strecker attempted to mobilize the doctorsthrough some of the most respected medical journals in theworld. The prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine saidthat his material "appears to be entirely concerned withmatters of virology" and so try some other publication.In his letter to The Annals, Strecker said, "If correct humanexperimental procedures had been followed we would notfind half of the world stumbling off on the wrong path tothe cure for AIDS with the other half of the world coveringup the origination of the damned disease. It appears to methat your Annals of Internal Medicine is participating in thegreatest fraud ever perpetrated."I guess they didn't like that so Strecker submitted hissensational and mind-boggling letter with all of the properdocumentation to the British journal, Lancet. Their reply:"Thank you for that interesting letter on AIDS. I am sorryto have to report that we will not be able to publish it. Wehave no criticism" but their letter was "overcrowded withsubmissions." They're too crowded to announce the end ofwestern civilization and possibly all mankind? It doesn'tseem reasonable.What can we do? The first thing that should be done isclose down all laboratories in this country that are dealingwith these deadly retroviruses.Then we must sort out the insane irresponsible andtraitorous scientists involved in these experiments and trythem for murder. Then maybe, just maybe, we can re-staffthe laboratories with people who will work to save aremnant of people to repopulate and re-civilize the world.References:1. Allison, et al, Bull WHO 1972. 47:257-63 and Amos, etal. Fed Proc. 1972, 31:10872. Omni Magazine, March. 1986, p. 106.3. Jan. 11, 1986. [???]4. London Times Front page, May 11, 1987.http://healingtools.tripod.com/who_africa.html☻☻☻☻☻☻-12 - Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 5 – Ancient African Medicine,Egypt and the Worldnot changed their design since the ancient Africansfirst sent out this knowledge to the world. Today,researchers are still discovering “new” cures based onold Egyptian remedies, such as eating celery to helpcurb inflammation associated with arthritis.Roots of Kemitic KnowledgeThe study further conducted genetic and chemicalanalysis on plant remains and resins, with the goal ofidentifying trade routes, which species were used andhow these plants might have been cultivated outsidetheir natural growing ranges.After detailed facts gathering and analysis thescientists proposed that the African Egyptiansobtained their medical knowledge from nomadicAfrican tribes that united to form ancient Egypt, aswell as from neighbouring African people in Kushand beyond.Current medical practices by the living Africansocieties and traditions still show similarities toPharaohic medicine.The continued use by African natural Doctors ofmedicinal herbs and animal products, and practicessuch as cosmetic dental filing, brain trepanning,orthopedic procedures, known to ancient Egyptianssuggest sustained scientific and religious interactionin the past.Alas, current studies are revealing that the knowledgeof medicine was transferred from central west Africato Egypt, just like everything else that was giftedfrom Kush to Kemet.This is very significant since it is widely known thatthe foundations of modern western medicine camefrom Egypt. Around 50 percent of the plants used inancient Egypt remained in clinical use. Medical toolslike forceps, scissors and surgical blades, were liftedunchanged from ancient Egyptian medical scienceinto modern western medicine. Medical practices,and knowledge of human anatomy, also found theirway into the body of scientific knowledge underlyingwestern medicine.Since the knowledge of Egyptian medical sciencewas from inner Africa, more precisely central andwestern Africa, the world owes this continent and itschildren a belated tribute, a sound recognition forhaving bequeathed the science of healing and hygieneto later cultures and civilizations who still owe theunrequited debt of appreciation for Africa’sbeneficence.Sources:http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/uomeng05090.phphttp://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/28/egyptiandrug_arc.html?category=animals&guid=20070228104530Chronicle of the Pharaohs (The Reign-By-Reign Record of theRulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt) Clayton, Peter A. 1994Thames and Hudson Ltd ISBN 0-500-05074-0.Complete Pyramids, The (Solving the Ancient Mysteries) Lehner,Mark 1997 Thames and Hudson, Ltd ISBN 0-500-05084-8.Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, The Shaw, Ian; Nicholson, Paul1995 Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers ISBN 0-8109-3225-3.History of Ancient Egypt, A Grimal, Nicolas 1988 BlackwellNone Stated.Monarchs of the Nile Dodson, Aidan 1995 Rubicon Press ISBN0-948695-20-x.Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, The Shaw, Ian 2000 OxfordUniversity Press ISBN 0-19-815034-2.http://www.africaresource.com/content/view/559/236/☻☻☻☻☻☻AIDS Epidemic hits Men HardCDC: More than half of infections among gay and bisexualmen in 2006ReutersSeptember 11, 2008WASHINGTON - AIDS remains largely a disease of gayand bisexual men in the United States but alsodisproportionately infects black women, according to ananalysis published on Thursday.Last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control andPrevention reported that more than 56,000 people in theUnited States become newly infected with the humanimmunodeficiency virus each year, far more than previousestimates of about 40,000.Now the CDC has further analyzed those numbers to findthe fatal and incurable virus largely infects men who havesex with men, or MSM — a group that includes gays,bisexuals and men who may have the occasional sexualencounter other men."The male-to-male sexual contact transmission categoryrepresented 72 percent of new infections among males,including 81 percent of new infections among whites, 63percent among blacks, and 72 percent among Hispanics,”the report said.Continued on page 15-13 - Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Threat of World Aids Pandemicamong Heterosexuals is Over,Report AdmitsA 25-year health campaign was misplaced outsidethe continent of Africa. But the disease still killsmore than all wars and conflictsBy Jeremy Laurance8 June 2008The IndependentA quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, theWorld Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that thethreat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared.In the first official admission that the universalprevention strategy promoted by the major Aidsorganisations may have been misdirected, Kevin deCock, the head of the WHO's department of HIV/Aidssaid there will be no generalised epidemic of Aids in theheterosexual population outside Africa.Dr De Cock, an epidemiologist who has spent much ofhis career leading the battle against the disease, saidunderstanding of the threat posed by the virus hadchanged. Whereas once it was seen as a risk topopulations everywhere, it was now recognised that,outside sub-Saharan Africa, it was confined to high-riskgroups including men who have sex with men, injectingdrug users, and sex workers and their clients.Dr De Cock said: "It is very unlikely there will be aheterosexual epidemic in other countries. Ten years ago alot of people were saying there would be a generalisedepidemic in Asia – China was the big worry with its hugepopulation. That doesn't look likely. But we have to becareful. As an epidemiologist it is better to describe whatwe can measure. There could be small outbreaks in someareas."In 2006, the Global Fund for HIV, Malaria andTuberculosis, which provides 20 per cent of all fundingfor Aids, warned that Russia was on the cusp of acatastrophe. An estimated 1 per cent of the populationwas infected, mainly through injecting drug use, the samelevel of infection as in South Africa in 1991 where theprevalence of the infection has since risen to 25 per cent.Dr De Cock said: "I think it is unlikely there will beextensive heterosexual spread in Russia. But clearly therewill be some spread."Aids still kills more adults than all wars and conflictscombined, and is vastly bigger than current efforts toaddress it. A joint WHO/UN Aids report published thismonth showed that nearly three million people are nowreceiving anti-retroviral drugs in the developing world,but this is less than a third of the estimated 9.7 millionpeople who need them. In all there were 33 millionpeople living with HIV in 2007, 2.5 million peoplebecame newly infected and 2.1 million died of Aids.Aids organisations, including the WHO, UN Aids andthe Global Fund, have come under attack for inflatingestimates of the number of people infected, divertingfunds from other health needs such as malaria, spendingit on the wrong measures such as abstinence programmesrather than condoms, and failing to build up healthsystems.Dr De Cock labelled these the "four malignantarguments" undermining support for the global campaignagainst Aids, which still faced formidable challenges,despite the receding threat of a generalised epidemicbeyond Africa.Any revision of the threat was liable to be seized on bythose who rejected HIV as the cause of the disease, orwho used the disease as a weapon to stigmatise high riskgroups, he said. "Aids still remain the leading infectiousdisease challenge in public health. It is an acute infectionbut a chronic disease. It is for the very, very long haul.People are backing off, saying it is taking care of itself.It is not."Critics of the global Aids strategy complain that vastsums are being spent educating people about the diseasewho are not at risk, when a far bigger impact could beachieved by targeting high-risk groups and focusing oninterventions known to work, such as circumcision,which cuts the risk of infection by 60 per cent, andreducing the number of sexual partners.There were "elements of truth" in the criticism, Dr DeCock said. "You will not do much about Aids in Londonby spending the funds in schools. You need to go wheretransmission is occurring. It is true that countries havenot always been good at that."But he rejected an argument put in The New York Timesthat only $30m (£15m) had been spent on safe waterprojects, far less than on Aids, despite knowledge of therisks that contaminated water pose."It sounds a good argument. But where is the scandal?That less than a third of Aids patients are being treated –or that we have never resolved the safe water scandal?"One of the danger areas for the Aids strategy was amongmen who had sex with men. He said: "We face a bit of acrisis [in this area]. In the industrialised worldtransmission of HIV among men who have sex with menis not declining and in some places has increased.Continue on page 15-14- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 14 – Threat of World HIV PandemicAmong Heterosexuals is Over"In the developing world, it has been neglected. We haveonly recently started looking for it and when we look, wefind it. And when we examine HIV rates we find they arehigh."It is astonishing how badly we have done with men whohave sex with men. It is something that is going to haveto be discussed much more rigorously."The biggest puzzle was what had caused heterosexualspread of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa – withinfection rates exceeding 40 per cent of adults inSwaziland, the worst-affected country – but nowhereelse. "It is the question we are asked most often – why isthe situation so bad in sub-Saharan Africa? It is acombination of factors – more commercial sex workers,more ulcerative sexually transmitted diseases, a youngpopulation and concurrent sexual partnerships.""Sexual behaviour is obviously important but it doesn'tseem to explain [all] the differences between populations.Even if the total number of sexual partners [in sub-Saharan Africa] is no greater than in the UK, there seemsto be a higher frequency of overlapping sexualpartnerships creating sexual networks that, from anepidemiological point of view, are more efficient atspreading infection."Low rates of circumcision, which is protective, and highrates of genital herpes, which causes ulcers on thegenitals through which the virus can enter the body, alsocontributed to Africa's heterosexual epidemic.But the factors driving HIV were still not fullyunderstood, he said."The impact of HIV is so heterogeneous. In the US , therate of infection among men in Washington DC is wellover 100 times higher than in North Dakota, the regionwith the lowest rate. That is in one country. How do youexplain such differences?"http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health☻☻☻☻☻☻Continued from page 13 - Aids Epidemic Hits MenHardOf the new infections in 2006, more than half wereamong gay and bisexual men, the CDC found. Of these,46 percent of new infections were among whites, 35percent among blacks and 19 percent in Hispanics.But among the overall U.S. population, more blacks areaffected — 46 percent of new infections were amongblacks.The CDC said it needed to redouble prevention efforts,especially in the black community."The alarming number of new infections among youngblack MSM underscores the need to ensure that each newgeneration has the knowledge and skills to prevent HIVinfection beginning early in their lives," the report reads.Girls and women made up 27 percent of new infections,with high-risk sexual contact with men causing 80percent of new infections."Among females, 61 percent of infections were in blacks,23 percent were in whites, and 16 percent were inHispanics," the CDC report reads.There is no cure for the AIDS virus, which is transmittedin bodily fluids such as blood, semen and breast milk.Around the world, sexual contact is by far the mostcommon mode of transmission although people who usecontaminated needles can be infected, and bloodtransfusions also can cause infection."African-Americans make up 12 percent of the total U.S.population, yet represented 45 percent of new HIVinfections in the United States in 2006," the CDC wrote.Globally, 33 million people are infected with HIV and 25million have died of it. There is no vaccine or curealthough drug cocktails can help control the infection.URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26660893/☻☻☻☻☻☻Common Gene makesAfricans more Vulnerable toHIVJames RandersonGuardian.co.ukJuly 17, 2008Around 11% of HIV infections in Africa may be due to agenetic variant common in people of African descent thatmakes them more vulnerable to the virus. The geneticchange, which is less prevalent in other ethnic groups,increases the likelihood of infection with the most common strain of the virus (HIV-1) by 40%. Once infectionhas occurred, though, the genetic variant slows theprogression of the disease, prolonging the patient's life byaround two years.The newly discovered genetic factor may go some way toexplaining why AIDS is so prevalent in sub-SaharanAfrica. According to the World Health Organisation,there were 4.3 million people newly infected with HIVworldwide in 2006 and 2.9 million deaths from AIDSrelatedillnesses. Around a third of all new infections andContinued on page 17-15- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 3, Issue 9 NEWSLETTER October 2008FEATURED ARTICLES“What are Duffy Antigens?”An antigen is a molecule that will set off the forces ofthe immune system to get rid of things that may be badfor us.Scientists are just starting to realize that the antigenmolecules that distinguish one blood type from anotherhave a lot of other important jobs elsewhere in ourbodies.Here's how it works. All our cells have numerousmolecules on the surface that, like little billboards,announce, `This cell is part of us. It's supposed to behere. Do not attack!'Immune system cells traveling around in our blood aretrained to recognize self molecules and pass right by.But if our immune system inspects a foreign cell in ourblood and doesn't recognize a molecule on the surface,it treats that molecule as an antigen and attacks. Thatattack often involves creating a molecule called anantibody designed specifically to fit the unique shape ofthe foreign antigen. The antibody attaches to theantigen and, like a chemical loudspeaker, summonsother components of the immune system to comedestroy the invader.In 1901 Karl Landsteiner of Austria noticed that somered blood cells had one kind of molecule on their outersurface, which he labeled simply A, and some had adifferent one that he labeled B.Some didn't have either, and he called those O (as inzero, not the letter ``o''.) Those molecules turned out tobe antigens. The discovery made transfusions possibleand earned Landsteiner a Nobel prize. Since then,we've discovered nearly 300 different antigens on redblood cells, with names like Duffy, Lutheran,Dombrock, Kidd, Diego, P, Yt, and Kx.They're mostly named for the people whose bloodcarried unique antibodies. Like Mr. Duffy, the Englishpatient who got sick after a transfusion. He received theright ABO type. But there was another antigen on thetransfused blood that his immune system didn't like. Itmade a special antibody cell nobody had ever seenbefore to fit onto and attack that antigen. That antigenwas named Duffy.In 1950, the Duffy blood group was named for themultiply transfused hemophiliac whose serumcontained the first example of anti-Fy a . In 1951, theantibody to the antithetical antigen, Fy b , was discoveredin the serum of a woman who had been pregnant threetimes. Using these antibodies three commonphenotypes were defined: Fy(a+b+), Fy(a+b-), andFy(a-b+). Differences in the racial distribution of theDuffy antigens were discovered four years later when itwas reported that the majority of Blacks had theerythrocyte phenotype Fy(a-b-). This phenotype isexceedingly rare in Whites. The frequency of the Fy(ab-)phenotype is 68 percent in American Blacks and 88-100 percent in African Blacks. The absence of Duffyantigens on erythrocytes results in their resistance toinvasion by two malaria parasites, Plasmodium vivaxand Plasmodium knowlesi. This racial variation indistribution of the Duffy system antigens provides oneof the few known examples of selective advantageconferred by a blood group phenotype. The Duffygenes, located on chromosome one at position 1922-23,have recently been cloned and sequenced. Thedifference between Fy a and Fy b is a change in theamino acid at position 43 from aspartic acid (Fy a ) toglycine (Fy b ). Studies have shown that blacks whoseerythrocytes express Fy b antigen also have the antigenon the cells of their kidney, heart, muscle, brain andplacenta. The Duffy gene codes for a protein known asa chemokine receptor, which is important in theinflammatory process.Rh is another well-known red blood cell antigen.Rhesus monkeys experimentally transfused with humanblood made the antibody this time, thus the Rh.If you have this antigen (there are actually 40 antigensin the Rh family) you're Rh positive. If you don't,you're Rh negative. Rh and ABO antigens are the mostimportant ones determining whether a transfusion willwork.But nature didn't put antigens on our red blood cells tomake sure transfusions would work. Transfusions arenot a natural occurrence. So what's going on?Continued on page 17-16- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 17 – “What are Duffy Antigens”It turns out that these molecules are involved in manyother biological processes.Remember Duffy? Well, many Africans and African-Americans don't have a Duffy antigen. As a result, theycan survive a form of malaria that infects the cell only ifit can attach to Duffy. No Duffy antigen, no P. vivaxmalaria.Remember the P antigen? One species of E. coli bacterianeeds that molecule to attach to tissue cells in the urinarytracts of children. Some children have that molecule.Some don't. Those without it don't get that kind of urinaryinfection.The molecule that the bacterium H. pylori attaches to inthe stomach lining to cause ulcers is an antigen when it'son red blood cells.On some non-blood cells, antigens appear, or disappear,or change, as tumors go from benign to cancerous. Someantigen molecules appear to play a role in helping cancerspread through the body. Some help blood cellmembranes maintain their shape. Some help cells processproteins.Statistical associations, which don’t automatically provecause and effect, show that A's have more cancers thanO's and that O's bleed more than A's. B's defecate themost. O's have the best teeth, but suffer more than otherblood types from plague infections. A's have the worsthangovers.There are wide racial, ethnic, and geographic differencesin blood types around the world. There are twice as manyO's among native Australians as among Japanese.Eskimos in Greenland are 25 times more likely to be B'sthan Navajos in North America. Citizens of India are fourtimes more likely to be B's than residents of England.All the findings suggest that molecules that distinguishblood types probably developed differently in differentpeople as part of the random processes of mutation andevolution. As nature tests which ones are best, some willoffer advantages, some disadvantages, in ways thatimmuno-hematologists like Garratty are only beginningto understand.http://jove.prohosting.com/~scarfex/blood/8.htmlhttp://www.boston.com/globe/search/stories/health/how_and_why/112398.htm☻☻☻☻☻☻-17- Traditional African Clinic October 2008Scientists make Gene Link toAfrican HIV EpidemicMark Henderson, Science EditorFrom The TimesJuly 17, 2008A genetic variant peculiar to Africans substantially raisestheir risk of infection with HIV, according to researchthat suggests evolved susceptibility may be helping todrive the continent’s Aids epidemic.The 90 per cent of Africans who carry the DNA variationare 40 per cent more likely to contract HIV than thosewithout it, after similar exposure to the virus, scientistsfrom Britain and America have found.As the genetic change is common among people ofAfrican ancestry but virtually unknown among otherethnic groups, it could explain in part why HIV-Aids ismore prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. The UnitedNations estimates that 22.5 million people there are HIVpositive,more than two thirds of the global total ofapproximately 33.2 million.The variant, known as “Duffy-negative”, is so common inAfrica that it could be responsible for about 11 per centof the continent’s HIV burden, or 2.5 million cases,scientists said.“It is an Africa-specific variant, which is why it’s sointeresting in the context of Aids research,” said RobinWeiss, Professor of Infection and Immunity at UniversityCollege London, a member of the study team.“It could certainly be a contributing factor to the scale ofthe epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. It’s the first time, sofar as we understand, that a genetic factor that increasessusceptibility to infection has come into play.”Sexual behaviour is also involved in the epidemic inAfrica, the only part of the world in which itpredominantly affects heterosexuals.The Duffy-negative gene has probably spread so widelythrough the African population because it providesresistance to a form of malaria called Plasmodium vivax.Professor Weiss believes it may also once have increasedresistance against a precursor of the most deadly malariaparasite, Plasmodium falciparum.These traits would have been highly advantageous inevolutionary Africa. As HIV is a new human pathogen,thought to have jumped from chimpanzees to peoplebetween 1910 and 1950, the gene’s effect on the viruswould have had no negative consequences until recently.Continued on page 18

Continued from page 18 – Scientists make Gene Link toAfrican HI Epidemic“Something that protected against malaria in the past isnow leaving the host more susceptible to HIV,” ProfessorWeiss said.Matthew Dolan, of the San Antonio Military MedicalCentre in Texas, said: “After thousands of years ofadaptation, this Duffy variant rose to high frequencybecause it helped protect against malaria. Now, withanother global pandemic on the scene, this same variantrenders people more susceptible to HIV. It shows thecomplex interplay between historically importantdiseases and susceptibility in contemporary times.”For the study, published in the journal Cell Host &Microbe, scientists examined a group of US Air Forcepersonnel, of whom more than 1,200 are HIV-positive,and who have been followed for nearly 22 years. TheDuffy-negative genotype was seen almost exclusively inAfrican-Americans.A continent cursed— Sub-Saharan Africa is the globe’s most Aids-affectedregion. In 2005, 24.5 million of its people were livingwith HIV and of all Aids sufferers, 64 per cent live there— In 2005, about 2.7 million people became infectedwith HIV and more than two million died— More than two million children under 15 are HIVpositiveand more than 90 per cent live in Africa— About 12 million African children under 17 have lostone or both parents to Aids— About 72 per cent of all people needing anti-retroviraltreatment live in Africa, and only one in six receives thenecessary medicine— Swaziland has the highest HIV rate, at 33.4 per cent ofpopulation. Botswana has 24.1 per cent and Zimbabwe20.1 per cent Source: UNAidshttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4345263.ece☻☻☻☻☻☻Herbal Medicines for theTreatment of Malaria inKamuli District, UgandaJohn R.S. TabutiMakerere University, Kampala, UgandaAbstractMalaria is the single most important cause of ill health,death and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its management-18- Traditional African Clinic October 2008is complicated because the disease has developedresistance to the most commonly used treatments. A surveycomprising of Semi-Structured Interviews and aquestionnaire was undertaken in the rural villages ofBuseete and Busambira found in Kamuli district, Uganda,to document herbal medicines used in the treatment ofmalaria and to document existing knowledge, attitudesand practices related to malaria recognition, control andtreatment.The people were knowledgeable about malaria. Malariaattacked individuals an average of six times a year.Conditions favoring the breeding of mosquitoes, such asdense bush, were evident in all homesteads. Preferredmalaria treatment was biased towards the AllopathicMedicine (AM) system. This preference for AM wasattributed to ignorance of how to exploit herbal medicinesfor the treatment of malaria and also to the belief thatallopathic medicines were superior to herbal medicines.Some respondents stated a preference to herbalmedicines, though. This preference was motivated by thefree and ready accessibility to plants. Knowledge of usingherbal medicines was average and was mainly restrictedto women.Twenty seven species were reportedly used inantimalarial herbal preparations. The most frequentlymentioned species were Vernonia amygdalina,Momordica foetida, Zanthoxylum chalybeum, Lantanacamara and Mangifera indica. Concoctions were preparedas cold extracts and were administered in variable doses.It is proposed that the most frequently mentioned speciesbe considered for further research to evaluate theirefficacy and safety.http://www.wlbcenter.org/drawer/reports/final_report.pdf☻☻☻☻☻☻9 Million Children WorldwideDied Before Age 5Rate of under-five mortality dipped slightly from2006, UNICEF saysReutersSeptember 11, 2008LONDON - More than 9 million children globally diedbefore their fifth birthday in 2007, down slightly from2006, but a huge gap remains between rich and poorcountries, especially in Africa, UNICEF said on Friday.Efforts to promote breastfeeding, immunizations andanti-malaria measures have helped cut child deaths to 9.2million from 9.7 million a year ago and 12.7 million in1990, the figures from the United Nations Children’sFund showed. Continued on page 19

Continued from page 18 – 9 Million Children WorldwideDied Before Age 5“Since 1960, the global under-five mortality rate hasdeclined more than 60 percent, and the new data showsthe downward trend continues,” UNICEF ExecutiveDirector Ann Veneman said in a statement.Improvements in Latin America and the Caribbean,Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union andin parts of Asia drove the overall decline, but deathsremain high in sub-Saharan Africa where one in sevenchildren dies before age 5.AIDS is still a major killer of children in sub-SaharanAfrica, though countries such as Eritrea, Malawi,Mozambique, Niger and Ethiopia have made significantprogress in cutting mortality rates, UNICEF said.“Sub-Saharan Africa now accounts for almost half of the9.2 million deaths among children in this age groupannually,” according to the UNICEF report published inthe journal Lancet.“High levels of fertility...together with high levels ofmortality in children aged less than 5 years have led to anincrease in the absolute number of deaths (in thisregion).”Worldwide, the death rate for children under age 5 was68 per 1,000 live births in 2007, down from the 93 per1,000 in 1990 and 72 per 1,000 a year ago.Sierra Leone had the worst under-five mortality rate inthe world with 262 out of every 1,000 children dyingbefore their fifth birthday. The rate in industrializednations was 6 per 1,000.A number of countries, including Laos, Bangladesh,Bolivia and Nepal, have also made good progress towardmeeting global targets to reduce the child mortality ratesby two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, UNICEF said.“Recent data also indicate encouraging improvements inmany of the basic health interventions, such as early andexclusive breast feeding, measles immunization, VitaminA supplementation, the use of insecticide-treated nets toprevent malaria, and prevention and treatment of AIDS,”Veneman said.“These interventions are expected to result in furtherdeclines in child mortality over the coming years.”URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26665596/☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻-19- Traditional African Clinic October 2008Malaria Drug ‘Contributing toAntibiotic Resistance’SciDev.NetDaily MonitorAugust 3, 2008A new study shows that overuse of a drug used toprevent and treat malaria may be contributing to growingresistance to a related antibiotic.Researchers report in the journal PloS ONE thatEscherichia coli bacteria resistant to the antibioticciprofloxacin – a type of fluroquinolone – were detectedin the digestive tracts of villagers from remote rainforestcommunities in Guyana, despite them never having beengiven the drug.Most of the villagers had been given the drug chloroquine– a drug closely related to ciprofloxacin – to prevent andtreat malaria.535 villagers were sampled for resistant bacteria in thethree-year study, with 4.8 per cent found to be carryingciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli.Guyana recorded over 11,000 cases of malaria last year,the Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, toldSciDev.Net. He said the findings were “interesting” andthat the Ministry of Health would commission its ownstudy to test the accuracy of the research results.The antibiotic ciprofloxacin is used throughout the worldto treat bacterial infections, including pneumonia, urinarytract infections and sexually transmitted diseases. This isthe first study to show that resistance can emerge inindividuals never exposed to the antibiotic.Drug resistant bacteria are known to arise from overuseof antibiotics, which is why researchers were surprised todiscover that they can develop in areas that do not haveaccess to ciprofloxacin, says study co author MichaelSilverman, an infectious disease specialist at LakeridgeHealth Network in Ontario, Canada.In fact, he says, ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli were evenmore widespread in remote Guyanese villages than in theUnited States intensive care units “where every secondperson is on antibiotics”.E. coli is one of the most common causes of infection inhumans. A decade ago it was nearly universallysusceptible to ciprofloxacin,” says Andrew Simor, asenior scientist at the Sunnybrooke Health sciencesCenter at the University of Toronto.Today, he says, as many as 30 per cent of hospitalpatients tested have E. coli that fails to respond tociprofloxacin. Continued on page 20

Continued from page 19 – Malaria Drug Contributing toAntibiotic ResistanceResistance to ciprofloxacin could be an importantpublic health problem in areas where malaria isendemic - and therefore chloroquine use common –because ciprofloxacin and other fluroquinolones couldbe less effective, write the authors.Silverman stressed that the study highlights the need tocontinue to try to prevent malaria through the use ofinsecticide-treated bed nets, along with thedevelopment of an effective vaccine.☻☻☻☻☻☻Malaria Fuels HIV/AidsSpread In AfricaBy Will DunhamDecember 8, 2006Note - What the story ISN'T saying is that mosquitoesare SPREADING HIV. Every time a mosquito or ANYbiting insect takes blood from an infected human andthen bites the next person, scores of viruses andbacteria are transmitted. To write a news story withoutpointing to the obvious disease-vectoring reality ofmosquitoes is gross deception at the least. This is aparticularly odious statement: "Higher viral loadcauses more HIV transmission, and malaria causeshigh HIV viral load.” Mosquitoes are already KNOWNto transmit over 70 different retroviruses. HIV is aretrovirus...but there is no mention of any of this in thefollowing story. - edWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Malaria may be helpingspread the AIDS virus across Africa, the continenthardest hit by the incurable disease, scientists said onThursday.The way the two diseases interact greatly expands theprevalence of both among people in sub-SaharanAfrica, a team of scientists said in a study in the journalScience.Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite,greatly boosts viral load -- the amount of humanimmunodeficiency virus in the blood of infected people-- making them more likely to infect a sex partner withHIV, they stated."Higher viral load causes more HIV transmission, andmalaria causes high HIV viral load," said lead studyauthor Laith Abu-Raddad of the Fred HutchinsonCancer Research Center in Seattle and the University ofWashington.Abu-Raddad, an AIDS researcher, estimated that-20- Traditional African Clinic October 2008malaria has helped HIV infect hundreds of thousandsand perhaps millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa.AIDS was first identified a quarter century ago.At the same time, HIV fuels malaria's spread becauseHIV-infected people are more susceptible to malaria asa result of HIV ravaging the immune system, the body'snatural defenses, the researchers said.AIDS and malaria are concentrated in sub-SaharanAfrica. Abu-Raddad said scientists were puzzled whenthey realized that the risky sexual behavior by people inthe region was not by itself sufficient to explain theswift spread of HIV, so other factors must be involved.They focused their work on Kisumu, a Kenyan city byLake Victoria where HIV and malaria are bothcommon. They said 5 percent of HIV infections can beblamed on the increased HIV viral load due to malaria,and 10 percent of adult malaria cases can be blamed onHIV.Since 1980, 8,500 more people got HIV infections, andthere were 980,000 more episodes of malaria (a personcan get it more than once) in a city whose adultpopulation is 200,000, the study found.PUBLIC HEALTH EFFORTSThe findings have implications for public health efforts,Abu-Raddad said, showing the importance forauthorities to tackle these diseases together.Of the 39.5 million people worldwide infected withHIV, 24.7 are in the poor countries of sub-SaharanAfrica. About 2.1 million of the world's 2.9 millionAIDS deaths in the past year were in this region.Malaria kills more than a million people annually,mostly young children in sub-Saharan Africa.The researchers produced their results with amathematical model using HIV and malaria infectiondata gathered in Malawi by James Kublin of theHutchinson Center. This enabled them to quantify forthe first time the synergy between malaria on HIV andits toll on people.Scientists previously determined that a lack of malecircumcision and the incidence of genital herpes alsowere facilitating the spread of HIV. Abu-Raddad notedthat circumcised men are much less likely to get HIV,and that genital herpes opens a door for HIV to infect aperson.Abu-Raddad said malaria now can be considered athird serious factor facilitating the spread of HIV.The two diseases drive one another even though theyhave different modes of transmission-- malaria by mos-Continued on page 21

Continued from page 20 – Malaria Fuels HIV Spread inAfricaquito and HIV predominantly by sexual intercourse,Abu-Raddad noted.Abu-Raddad said once an HIV person gets malaria, hisor her viral load goes up and stays higher for six toeight weeks, making the person far more infectious toothers.http://www.rense.com/general74/mala.htm☻☻☻☻☻☻Continued from page 15 - Common Gene MakesAfricans More Vulnerable to HIVAIDS- related deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa,where there are eight countries in which adult HIVprevalence exceeds 15% of the population.Ironically, scientists believe that the genetic variant isat such high levels in Africa because it conferredresistance to a now extinct form of malaria.A team of British and US researchers studied a groupof 3,484 people in the US Air Force, of whom 1,266were infected with HIV. They tested each for a genevariant called Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines(DARC), which has been extensively studied in the pastbecause of its ability to confer resistance to one form ofthe malaria parasite. The gene is known to be commonamong people of African descent.The team report in the journal Cell, Host and Microbethat subjects who were DARC-negative were morelikely to be infected with HIV. The gene variantappeared to make them 40% more susceptible toinfection.By extrapolating this figure to the number of people inAfrica with the same genetic variation, the researchersestimate that 11% of all HIV infections in the continentare due to this increased susceptibility."The mystery of variable infection and progression wasoriginally thought to be mainly the result of viralcharacteristics, but in recent years it has becomeevident that there is a strong host genetic component,"said team member Dr Sunil Ahuja of the University ofTexas Health Science Center in San Antonio."The big message of this paper is that something thatprotected people against malaria in the past is nowleaving them more susceptible to HIV," said RobinWeiss of University College London, who also workedon the study.http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jul/17/hiv.aids/☻☻☻☻☻☻-21- Traditional African Clinic October 2008Scientists Map Genomes ofMalaria ParasitesDiscovery will help in creating new treatments,vaccines, researchers sayReutersOctober 8, 2008WASHINGTON - Scientists have mapped the genomesof the parasite that causes most cases of malaria outsideAfrica and a monkey parasite that is emerging as animportant cause of malaria in people in Southeast Asia.This information should help guide efforts to developnew drugs and vaccines to fight the mosquito-bornedisease, two teams of researchers wrote in the journalNature on Wednesday."It's going to be a very powerful tool," Jane Carlton ofNew York University Langone Medical Center said.A team led by Carlton worked out the complete geneticsequence of the parasite Plasmodium vivax, whichcauses malaria in Latin America and Asian countriesincluding India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia,Melanesia and the Korean peninsula.It accounts for up to 40 percent of malaria globally,with an estimated 2.6 billion people threatened by theparasite.Although the malaria it causes is only occasionallyfatal, it triggers severe symptoms such as repeatedepisodes of high fever followed by headache, chills andprofuse sweating, vomiting, diarrhea and enlargementof the spleen.The vivax parasite can remain dormant in the liver onlyto re-emerge and cause relapses months or years afterthe initial illness. The researchers found genes that maybe responsible for this dormancy, perhaps paving theway for scientists to find ways to disrupt it.The researchers identified genes in the parasite thatseem to help it invade a person's red blood cells andevade the immune system. The parasite is becomingresistant to some antimalarial drugs.A team led by Arnab Pain of the Wellcome TrustSanger Institute in Britain deciphered the full geneticsequence of the monkey parasite Plasmodium knowlesi.This parasite is rapidly establishing itself as the fifthhuman-infecting malaria parasite and has emerged as aconsiderable health problem in Southeast Asia, Painsaid.The researchers also found a trick used by the knowlesiparasite to avoid detection by the immune system.Continued on page 32

Malaria Builds Resistance,Kills MillionsGLENN McKENZIEAssociated PressSeptember 20, 2003LAGOS, Nigeria - Malaria, the ancient mosquito-bornedisease that was rolled back by medical advances in themid-20th century, is making a deadly comeback.Strains of the disease are becoming increasinglyresistant to treatment, infecting and killing more peoplethan ever before - sickening as many as 900 million lastyear, according to estimates by the U.S. Agency forInternational Development.More than 1 million people - and as many as 2.7million by some estimates - of those victims died. Thevast majority of the deaths were in Africa.Shivering and sweating feverishly, Felicia Egbuchuetook the malaria medicine her doctor prescribed.Although it had cured her in years past, this time itdidn't. She was rushed to the hospital, and hooked up toan intravenous drip."I have no inner strength. I feel like I'm dying," the 30-year-old university student said from her hospital bed.After three days in a private hospital in Nigeria'scommercial capital of Lagos, Egbuchue recovered fromwhat doctors said was a strain that had become resistantto many of the standard treatments."Malaria is something that we thought we hadconquered years ago. But more and more of our peopleare dying from it every day," said Patrick Dike, amalaria specialist at the Lagos hospital.Only AIDS kills more people worldwide. Among children, malaria kills even more than AIDS.The economic cost of malaria is also high - in countriesof Africa, Asia and Latin America where the disease isendemic, the World Health Organization estimates upto $12 billion are lost annually to the disease.Americans traveling abroad also are at risk. Of the 225Marines and Navy forces who went ashore to assistWest African peacekeepers in Liberia, 51 showedsymptoms - an unusually high rate, U.S. officials said.International efforts to contain or even eradicate thedisease have received a boost in recent years withmajor grants from the U.S. government and from the$4.7 billion five-year U.N. Global Fund for Aids,Tuberculosis and Malaria.-22- Traditional African Clinic October 2008The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which hassupported malaria efforts, is also expected to announcenew funding toward malaria medicines, controls andvaccine research this weekend."We hope that malaria gets some additional visibility,"Bill Gates, the Microsoft tycoon, said in a conference callwith journalists. "Of those million people who die,overwhelmingly those are children. ... This is somethingwe should demand more action on."Malaria campaigners complain that despite the increasedfocus, their efforts remain woefully underfunded.Whereas AIDS vaccine research receives $400 million ayear, malaria research receives just $60 million.While donors commit an estimated $200 million eachyear to treating impoverished patients and distributingmosquito nets and insecticides to prevent mosquito bitesthat transmit the disease, experts say they need at least $1billion to make a dent."Malaria has to some extent been forgotten by theinternational community," said Allan Schapira, a seniorofficial in WHO's Rollback Malaria program. "Apartfrom AIDS, it is the single worst child health problemthat we haven't got a grip on."In Nigeria, a nation of 126 million people wheregovernment officials estimate up to one-quarter of theworld's malaria deaths occur, researchers at the nationalNigerian Institute of Medical Research test malariatreatments and other drugs on mice in a single tiny,stiflingly hot laboratory."The resources available in Nigeria for this work arelimited or even nonexistent," research director PhilipAgomo said.A major cause of malaria's alarming resurgence is theparasite's increasing resistance to the drugs used to treatand prevent the disease - including chloroquine, thecheapest and most effective anti-malarial since the 1950s.The number of alternatives are limited. The WHOsupports use of multi-drug combinations based onartemisinin, until recently an extract from the "sweetwormwood" plant used in China for centuries but littleknown in the West.Yet aid agency officials say that artemisinin is not yetproduced in large enough quantities to affordably treatthe large numbers of Africans who need it most.Some governments and Western donors have beenhesitant to promote the treatment widely because of alack of funds - artemisinin is 10 times more expensivethan chloroquine, or between $4.50 and $9 for a threedaytreatment.Continued on page 23

Continued from page 22 – Malaria Builds Resistance"It is definitely the future," Anne Peterson, head ofglobal health for USAID in Washington, said ofartemisinin-based drugs. "Yet it is far more expensiveand harder to get out to the numbers of people whoneed it."The Nobel Prize-winning international humanitariangroup Medecins Sans Frontieres is urging the UnitedStates and other Western governments to support andfund artemisinin-based therapy regimens. It noteschloroquine and other drugs have become ineffective inup to 80 percent of malaria cases in some countries."Donors must stop wasting their money funding drugsthat don't work," MSF said in a report.Peterson, the USAID official, said that until it receivesmore funds, the U.S. agency will support the use of the"cheapest, most effective drugs" in countries wherethey still have use.Dike, the Lagos doctor, said in the absence ofaffordable alternatives, he and some colleagues have indesperation begun exchanging information about whatavailable combinations work best to treat patients."People don't understand why their relatives aresometimes not recovering, or why they are not beingcured as quickly as they are used to being cured. Howdo you explain drug resistance? When they aresuffering, the doctor is blamed."http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/6820492.htm☻☻☻☻☻☻New Malaria-CarryingMosquito Found inCameroonBy Tansa Musa24 July 2004YAOUNDE, July 24 (Reuters) - A new form ofmosquito carrying the parasite responsible for the mostdeadly form of malaria, Africa's biggest killer alongsideHIV/AIDS, has been discovered in a village in southernCameroon, researchers say.Discovery of the hitherto-unknown variety,provisionally dubbed "Oveng Form" after the villagewhere it was found, is likely to make the fight againstthe malaria in Cameroon even more difficult,researchers say, although more research is needed.It joins four other species already known in the centralAfrican country, all of them resistant to common anti-malaria drugs.A team of French and Cameroonian scientists made thediscovery after collecting samples of Anophelesmosquitoes from five localities including Oveng village-- which lies between two rivers near the border withGabon and Equatorial Guinea."It is then that we discovered that the samples fromOveng village were different from existing varieties interms of morphology and behaviour," Parfait HermanAwono-Ambene, one of the scientists who carried outthe research, told Reuters on Friday.Mosquitoes from the Anopheles group transmit malaria-- which kills roughly 3,000 people every day -- tohumans along rivers in Africa. The results of the studywere published in the July issue of the Journal ofMedical Entomology."The interesting thing about Oveng Form is that it ishardly found inside houses though it bites humanbeings just like others and contains the malaria-carryingagent Plasmodium falciparum," Awono-Ambene said,referring to the most life-threatening form of thedisease.He said the mosquito found in Oveng becomes veryactive at dusk, feeding on people who live near or alongthe banks of the two rivers.More research will need to be carried out to determinewhether this variety is only present in Oveng village,but Awono-Ambene said the mosquito was also likelyto exist in neighbouring Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.Malaria costs Africa around $12 billion a year in lostincome.In Cameroon, it represents 35 to 40 percent of deaths inhospitals and is responsible for 40 percent of deathsamong children aged between zero and five.The country's public health authorities are promotingthe use of impregnated nets to fight the disease, butadequate nets are not always easily available and at3,500 CFA francs ($6.5) they are often too expensivefor the average household.http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24594997.htm☻☻☻☻☻☻FYI – In Uganda25-40 Percent of outpatients visit health centres due toMalaria.20 Percent of hospital admissions and 15 per cent ofin-patients deaths are due to Malaria.Malaria is the leading cause of death in Uganda.☻☻☻☻☻☻-23- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Scientists say Africa MustMake Own Drugs to FightAIDS, MalariaBy ELLIOTT SYLVESTERAssociated PressMarch 20, 2003STELLENBOSCH, South Africa - Scientists challengedAfrican nations Thursday to produce their owngeneric drugs - not just rely on pharmaceutical giants tohelp fight AIDS, malaria and other diseases ravagingthe continent.African nations lag behind countries such as Cuba andIndia that produce "homegrown" medicines, GordonDougan, a British vaccine expert, told a conference onthe human genome initiative."We need to reinvent local production of high qualitygeneric vaccines," Dougan said. "Countries are nolonger producing their own vaccines, and this is whyhuge pharmaceutical companies control the industry."More than 300 scientists from 16 countries are inStellenbosch, about 30 miles north of Cape Town, at aconference aimed at using knowledge of the humangenome - a genetic blueprint that scientists are workingto map - to help combat diseases.Dr. Hoosen Coovadia, HIV/AIDS researcher at SouthAfrica's University of Natal, said African governmentsshould translate scientific research into policy toovercome the most serious diseases facing Africa.The United Nations estimates there were 3.4 millionnew HIV infections in Africa in 2001 - almost 70percent of the global total.British Dr. Matt Berriman told the conference humangenome research has cut the time it is taking him tofind a vaccine for malaria - a vaccine he said may readyfor use in 20 years.The mosquito-borne disease kills about 3,000 Africansa day, most of them under five years of age.☻☻☻☻☻☻To all African People Livingin New ZealandMarch 1, 2008This letter is to let all African people living in NewZealand about the discrimination that is happening herein New Zealand in regard to the testing, diagnosis andtreatment in the area of enforced HIV illness. And theletter has been sent to one of the prominent figurewithin the African community. We will appreciate ifyou can pass on this letter to other African peoplewithin the community.I believe that the human and health rights of Africans inNew Zealand are being severely transgressed in thetesting, diagnosis and treatment (especially whenenforced) of HIV disease. This discrimination ismanifest in several forms.Simply being Black African in New Zealand is seen as“high risk” compared to being tested in Africancountries. This is an important consideration in relationto interpretation of the tests (because the interpretationis arbitrary). The staff deciding the test results areinformed in their own 2000 handbook: “By mid 1999,1,355 patients had been reported with HIV infectionsince the beginning of the epidemic and 678 withAIDS.Currently there are about 700 HIV infected peopleliving in New Zealand of whom 107 have AIDS.Homosexual males remain the biggest identifiable riskgroup (63% now) but in the last 18 months infectedheterosexual immigrants, particularly from Africa, arethe most rapidly increasing group. After falling forseveral years, the number of newly reported HIVinfected people rose in 1998, significantly contributedto by this immigrant group,” i.e. it’s those BlackAfricans who are increasing our rate of HIV disease,not our racist coercion in testing. Black Africans aremore than 200 times more likely to be “positive” onthese tests. Rules of privacy and confidentiality are notadhered to; the doctors reason that hospital personnelhave a right to know if a Black African has HIV so theydon’t “catch” the AIDS disease.This despite the fact that not one single health careworker anywhere in the world has contracted AIDSthrough accidental exposure in the 23 years since the‘epidemic’ began. Black Africans and their children arebeing coerced into these tests, where white Europeansare not. A Black African presenting with any medicalcondition, however unrelated to any possible HIVdisease, to a New Zealand hospital suffers greatpressure to get an HIV test.MOH and Statistics NZ figures demonstrate that BlackAfricans have a higher prevalence of HIV in NewZealand than the reported rate in extremely high riskand frequently tested prisoners in South Africanprisons. The prison population comprises intravenousdrug users and men who have sex with men withoutcondoms. Given that these prisoners are all tested everyContinued on page 36-24- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 3, Issue 9 NEWSLETTER October 2008FEATURED ARTICLESThe Afrikan Traditional Herbal Research CentreProgress ReportNakato LewisBlackherbals at the Source of the Nile, UG Ltd.October 2008The concept of indigenous or local traditionalknowledge refers to the complete bodies of knowledge,expertise, practices and technology, maintained anddeveloped by people with long histories of closeinteraction with the natural environment. These sets ofunderstandings, interpretations and meanings are partof a cultural complex that includes language, namingand classification systems, ways of using and recyclingresources, rituals, spirituality and a worldview. Suchknowledge provides the basis for local decision-makingabout many fundamental aspects of day-to-day lifewithin these societies, such as hunting and gatheringfood, fishing, agriculture and animal husbandry, foodproduction, water, health, and adaptation toenvironmental or social change.As in all traditional societies, Afrikan people haveevolved sophisticated realms of knowledge, derivedfrom experimentation or observation to explain,predict, and control natural phenomena. Thisindigenous knowledge often appears to differ from-oreven run counter to-the scientific principles taught bycolonial powers. Evidence of Afrika's store ofindigenous scientific knowledge has emerged recentlyin a variety of disciplines. For example, living on thedesert's edge, Afrika's nomadic pastoralists areacknowledged to be among the world's experts onfamine and range management. The thousand-year-oldcultures living south of Timbuktu along the Niger Riverin Mali consult written texts that we appreciate today,as a model of environmental conservation. Afrika'straditional plant breeders cultivated tropical gardensthat contain as many as 150 intercropped species andrecognition is given to the Afrikan for the developmentof a remarkably productive agricultural system. Thecontinent's materia medica of more than 7,000 animal,plant, and mineral products for the treatment of illnessis a resource that western-trained scientists are avidlycopying and studying.-25- Traditional African Clinic October 2008Seldom documented, Afrikan indigenous knowledge(AIK) is passed orally from generation to generation.Unfortunately, scientific awareness of the value ofAfrikan indigenous knowledge is growing at a timewhen such knowledge is under tremendous threat. It isin danger of disappearing, as a result of the evergrowingWestern influences for rapid technologicalchange and because the capacity and facilities neededto document, evaluate, validate, protect and disseminatesuch knowledge are lacking. For this situation tochange, infrastructures, facilities, research, andfinancial resources are needed. More research needs tobe done on AIK systems and more methods developedfor dealing with it. Afrikan claims of indigenoussolutions to specific problems by indigenousknowledge systems need to be validated and attemptsmade to improve or adapt those systems. This researchshould be conducted with people who possess theindigenous knowledge and with the local communitiesinvolved. There are signs of a growing demand foreducation systems in Afrika, tailored to local needs. Itis these efforts that are providing increased attention toknowledge systems based in local traditions andcultures and the need to revitalise these systems froman educational point of view.Importance of Indigenous KnowledgeIn the past, modern science has considered methods ofAfrikan indigenous knowledge as primitive. Manytraditional practices, during the colonial period, weredeclared illegal by the colonial authorities. However,AIK has made and continues to make significantcontributions to resolving local problems. Fromdeveloping countries worldwide an increasing flow ofinformation is being transmitted and the role thatindigenous knowledge plays in a range of sectors.Besides alleviating poverty, this range includes suchsectors as agriculture (intercropping techniques, animalContinued on page 26

Continued from page 25 –The Afrikan Traditional HerbalResearch Centreproduction, pest control, crop diversity, animalhealthcare, seed varieties), biology (botany, fishbreeding techniques), human healthcare (throughtraditional medicine), the use and management ofnatural resources (soil conservation, irrigation and otherforms of water management), and education (oraltraditions, local languages).Furthermore, through modern ethno-botanical research,indigenous knowledge is contributing to science infields relevant to natural resource management. Inparticular, indigenous knowledge helps scientistsunderstand the issues of biodiversity and natural forestmanagement provide insights into crop domestication,breeding and management, and gives scientists a newappreciation of the principles and practices of 'slashand-burn'techniques in agriculture, agro-ecology, agroforestry,crop rotation, pest and soil management, andother areas of agricultural science.One of the major prerequisites for the entire process ofcollecting, applying and disseminating indigenousknowledge is the full participation of the local peopleinvolved. Full participation can be achieved only whenthe local communities are able to participate on anequal level. Capacity building is therefore a key issue,and vital if traditional knowledge systems are to receivethe active support to sustain them. Capacity buildingmust include training to better equip indigenous peopleand young scientists to carry out research on traditionalknowledge, and to promote and develop that research tobetter appreciate traditional knowledge. This can beachieved through collaborations between nationalgovernments and Afrikan organisations and by placingindigenous knowledge on the agenda of science fordevelopment in general.Afrika is a natural treasure house, endowed withwonderful examples of physical and cultural diversity.Afrika is also a laboratory for studying the boundariesbetween modern scientific methods and technologiesand traditional practices. Indigenous knowledge has atrans-generational, communal, spiritual and culturalnature. Western science is based solely ontechnological aspects of the physical world. Indigenousknowledge and western science should be seen as twosystems of knowledge that can supplement, rather thancompete with each other.Traditional AgricultureTraditional farming is an important reserve and sourceof biodiversity. It is still perhaps the only sustainablesystem. Ancient farmers developed sustainable agriculturepractices, which allowed them to produce food -and fiber for thousands of years with few if any outsideinputs. Many of these practices have been forgotten orabandoned in developed countries, but have continuedto be used by many traditional, subsistence, or partiallysubsistence farmers in developing countries. Mosttraditional methods of agriculture were developedempirically, through millennia of trial and error, naturalselection, and keen observation. Some of thesepractices, which often conserve energy, maintainnatural resources, and reduce chemical use, are worthyof examination. Today over half of the worlds' arableland is farmed by traditional farmers. Many of theirtechniques are unknown or poorly understood, but haveallowed them to produce crops and animals withminimal or no purchased inputs. Traditional farmingsystems often resemble natural tropicalagroecosystems. This and their striking diversity givethem a high degree of stability, resilience, andefficiency.Traditional farming, however, is being replaced bymodern intensive farming systems in many parts of theworld. This represents the loss of farming systems thatare stable, sustainable and from which many valuablelessons can be learned. Although high yields of modernintensive agriculture have made it possible to feed theever-increasing human population, it has beenaccomplished at the expense and to the destruction ofthe surrounding ecosystems. Traditional agriculturalpractices must be understood and conserved, beforethey are lost through the rapid advance of modernagriculture in developing countries.They are fertilizing the Earth on a global scale throughintensive agriculture, fossil fuel combustion andwidespread cultivation of leguminous crops. Evidenceis growing that the use of huge additional quantities ofnitrogen are exacerbating acidification, causingchanges in the species composition of ecosystems. Italso raises nitrate levels in freshwater supplies aboveacceptable limits for human consumption, producing anaquatic environment that favours plant over animal lifein many freshwater habitats. Pesticide use causes theacute poisoning of 3.5 to 5 million people a year.Worldwide, 400 million tonnes of hazardous waste arebeing generated each year. About 75 per cent ofpesticide use and hazardous waste generation occurs indeveloped countries. Despite restrictions on toxic andpersistent chemicals such as DDT, PCBs and dioxin inmany developed countries, manufacturing of thesechemicals continues for export and remains widelyused in developing countries.Microbial food-borne illnesses are the largest class ofemerging infectious diseases. The use of antibiotics andContinued on page 27-26- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 26 - The Afrikan Traditional HerbalResearch Centrehormones in agriculture is growing. Their prolongeduse on farm animals has resulted in cancerous tumoursand unmanageable bacterial and viral infections inanimals. Of particular concern, are the antibiotics andhormones fed each year to hogs, chickens, and cattle,specifically designed to reduce their bacterialpopulations and promote faster growth for foodproduction. A major important fact is that the bacteriathese antibiotics are designed to destroy are growingincreasingly resistant to antibiotics and at a faster pacethan if these antibiotics were used only to treat animalsdiagnosed with disease. This has created super-bugsand super infections in human and animals.Multinational corporations use genetic engineering tomonopolize the seed supply and raise the cost offarming so that the western global agricultural industrycan consolidate its control worldwide. Traditionalfarmers support billions of people on the planet bysaving seeds from crops and replanting these seeds thefollowing year. Most farmers cannot afford to buy newseeds every year, so collecting and replanting seeds is acrucial part of the agricultural cycle. Food has beengrown successfully this way for thousands of years.The existence of genetically engineered crops goesagainst all the natural laws of nature, producing toxicreactions as well as food allergies. The safety of theirlong-term use is not established. Many research studiesshow that genetically engineered plants can harmwildlife and sensitive ecological systems, which Afrikamust guard against.Genetically modified material contaminates more thantwo-thirds of conventional crops in the United States,dooming organic agriculture and posing a severe futurerisk to health. Because of the contamination, farmersunknowingly plant billions of GM seeds a year,spreading genetic modification throughout NorthAmerican agriculture. This will become even more of adanger to health with the next generation of GM crops,bred to produce pharmaceuticals and industrialchemicals. Trade in genetically engineered food, cropsand microorganisms is dominated by a handful ofmultinational corporations, the same corporationsinvolved in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals,nutraceuticals, pesticides, herbicides and otherchemicals.Today, most commercial farms are depleted ofnutrients and natural soil organisms. Due to theconvenience of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, andpesticides, farmers no longer need to rotate their crops,which now grow faster and are accompanied by greateryields per season. If problems develop, they just addmore man-made chemicals, a poison or a stimulant, totheir crops. The soil on many commercially farms hasbecome so unnatural that it no longer holds waternormally and even requires more water, which contributeto waste and further leeching of nutrients from the soil.Many farmers no longer bother to develop mulch or plowold crops back into the soil. Pesticides destroy most ofthe living organisms in the soil, thus old crops cannot betransformed into beneficial soil.Traditional agriculture methods, such as cross-pollinationor selective breeding, are based on natural reproductivemechanisms. These traditional methods will cross onlyone kind of plant or animal with a similar species. Fruitsand vegetables grown organically show significantlyhigher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants thanmodernly grown foods. Consumer interest in organicfoods, produced without the use of pesticides, chemicalsor genetic engineering, has ballooned in recent years dueto increasing concerns about health and food safety.Researchers are beginning to appreciate that manytraditional farmers in the developing world are stillpracticing farming methods that are in balance with thesurrounding ecosystems, stable, sustainable and highlyefficient. Portrayed as ignorant and not adaptive,traditional farmers have actually been utilizing verysophisticated methods of agricultural production forcenturies. These farming systems can perhaps help thedeveloped world to grow food with fewer chemicalinputs, slow erosion, control pests, decrease ourdependence on fossil fuels and feed an expanding globalpopulation.The challenge for the future is how to increase yields intraditional systems while retaining a certain measure oftheir integrity, in other words, to finds methods ofsustainable intensification. Conversely, we need tointegrate biological diversity into existing moderncommercial agricultural systems in developed countries.There is evidence that the adoption of traditionalconservation methods on large commercial farms canpromote biological diversity (*FAO, 1996). Techniquessuch as crop rotation, intercropping, cover crops,integrated pest management, and green manures can beadapted for use in larger commercial systems. Thesepractices can reduce dependence on fertilizers andpesticides and promote sustainable intensification. Anintegration of farming systems, combining theproductivity of modern systems and the sustainability oftraditional systems, could help to preserve biologicaldiversity and feed a growing population withoutexcessive damage to the environment.Continued on page 37-27- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Traditional Medicine PlayingImportant Role - NduhuraThe Republic of UgandaDaily MonitorNovember 6, 2007Uganda joins other African countries to commemoratethe 5 th African Traditional Medicine ay. The theme forthis year is ‘Research & Development of TraditionalMedicine in WHO African Region’.In Uganda and the rest of Africa, traditional medicinecontinues to play a very important role in health caredelivery for primary health care. A large number of thepopulation in Uganda tends to rely on traditionalmedicine and this has resulted in the tremendous rise innumber of people using traditional medicine countrywide.Therefore, pharmaceutical companies, traditional healthpractitioners, conventional health practitioners have a lotto benefit in traditional medicine (herbal medicine) ifResearch and Development is embraced. This is an areaUganda has a competitive advantage. The government ofUganda is encouraging investment in this sector in orderto create employment for scientific innovators.The role of research and development in traditionalmedicine in Uganda is very important. There is greatneed for scientists and researchers to carry outcomprehensive research and development of traditionalmedicine to ensure that validated and standardizedproducts are used in health delivery systems. Most of ourherbal formulations are not standardized to meet theminimum national requirement for registration withNational Drug Authority.Public and private collaboration is crucial in thedevelopment of traditional medicine in Uganda. TheGovernment of Uganda has come out strongly to supportscience based courses at the universities and sciencebased researches. The millennium science initiative underUganda National Science Council for Science andTechnology is one among the many examples ofGovernment initiatives to support research anddevelopment. This is an opportunity for all thestakeholders in traditional medicine to encourage ouryoung scientists to get involved in research anddevelopment.The Ministry of Health public private partnership policyfor Health is intended to streamline research anddevelopment of traditional medicine. The National policyon Traditional and Complimentary Medicine (TCM) isdue to be tabled to cabinet. This Policy forms backgroundfor enhancing Research and Development in traditionalmedicine.The Ministry of Health pledges its total support to allScientists and Natural Chemotherapeutics ResearchLaboratory in particular for their effort in Research andDevelopment of traditional medicine. A number ofherbal formulations are being standardized to ensurethat they are safe and efficacious. The NaturalChemotherapeutics Research Laboratory has managedto identify the research priorities in traditional medicinewhich is inline with Health Sector Strategic Plan.As we commemorate this day therefore I call upon allscientists to embrace Research and Development oftraditional medicine. This will add value to our naturalproducts and herbal medicines for fulfilling thegrowing needs in quality and safety in natural products.We also need to ensure that our natural resources areconserved as we develop traditional medicine.The World Health Organization (WHO) observes thisday on every 31 of August. However, in Uganda, thisday for this year will be observed in November 2007.I wish all Ugandans joyous celebration of the 5 thAfrican Traditional Medicine Day.FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRYMinister of State for Health General Duties,Honorable Richard Nduhura☻☻☻☻☻☻Enhancing Research in theWHO African RegionResearch and Development of TraditionalMedicine in the WHO African RegionDaily MonitorNovember 6, 2007In Africa, close to 80% of the population continue torely on traditional medicine for health delivery. In mostcases traditional medicines has been found withinreach, easy access and with minimal side effects.However this is not to say it’s free from unwanted sideeffects. Lack of proper standards for herbal medicineshas affected its integration into the National health caredelivery systems for African countries includingUganda. The Natural Chemotherapeutics ResearchLaboratory (NCRL) is faced with challenges ofevaluating large numbers of herbal medicines locallyused in order to justify their therapeutic claims as wellas demonstrate their clinical efficacy.While herbal medicine is useful, it poses lots of chal-Continued on page 29-28- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 28 – Enhancing Research in the WHOAfrica Regionlenges for example, safety and efficacy before it cansustainably be integrated into the health care deliverysystems. This is the reason the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) has strongly come out to support anumber of countries with Research and Developmentguidelines in traditional medicine.There is also added financial support from WHO forinstitutions to develop policies on traditional medicineand clinically validate herbal therapies.Despite the challenges, NCRL has been at the forefront ofResearch and Development of herbal medicine inUganda. A number of herbal formulations are beingstandardized to ensure that they are safe and efficaciousand thereafter be considered for registration withNational Drug Authority (NDA).The Network on Medicinal Plants and TraditionalMedicine Project with a Secretariat at NCRL, supportedby International Development Research Centre (IDRC),Ottawa, Canada has also assessed current researchactivities on medicinal plants and traditional medicine inE. Africa, identified the research priorities in medicinalplants and traditional medicine, enhanced researchcapacities and harmonized research approaches andmethodologies for sustainable management of medicinalplants. The project has promoted collaborative researchprojects in medicinal plants and traditional medicinewithin the E. African countries and strengthened thecapacity of traditional health practitioners in Researchand Development in traditional medicine.A meeting on the institutionalization of the Networkwithin the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) ofthe East Africa Community was held in Kampala inSeptember 2007. It was attended by representatives fromthe LBVC, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.It was recommended that the Network evolves into apartnership in order to carry out activities identified in thestrategic framework of Network of Medicinal Plants andTraditional Medicine (EA). The LVBC is ready toembrace the Network if it evolved into a partnership andthis will also bring in Rwanda and Burundi as they arenow members of the East African Community. Therecently conclude Natural Product Research in East andCentral Africa (NAPRECA) Conference threw light onrecent advancement in Natural Product Research andDevelopment. This conference was able to revive hopeabout the possible cures of the forgotten or neglectedtropical diseases for example, trypanosomiasis,onchorcirciasis, etc from our biodiversity. The meeting ofgreat renowned scientists in such a high profileconference hosted by Makerere University between 22 nd-29- Traditional African Clinic October 2008and 26 th July 2007 was a great land mark in the historyof NAPRECA, Uganda.The NCRL was privileged to be treated to a presymposiumactivity that revived research anddevelopment in the light of hinging onethnopharmacology and the need to be proactive toenvironmental issues. All these are to ensure asuccessful future in research and development innatural products.Through the above theme, NCRL will strengthenResearch and Development of herbal medicines in thecountry though wider institutional collaborations withother institutions e.g., Uganda Industrial ResearchInstitute, National Drug Authority, Uganda NationalCouncil for Science and Technology, Uganda NationalBureau of Standards, Uganda Export Promotion Board,Uganda Investment Authority and a number ofacademic Research Institutions.Currently with collaboration with National DrugAuthority, some of the herbal formulae are to beregistered and these products will be able to be sold inpharmacies and drug shops around the country. Inaddition, a number of private investors have started toinvest in herbal pharmaceutical processing of localherbal products which range from decoction, infusions,syrups , cosmetics and many others,The former National Enterprise Corporation now NEC-Healthworld Ltd is due to commence manufacture ofsome of the herbal products in Uganda.Many local and international private investors havecontacted NCRL and Ministry of Health to discussissues of partnership in research and development ofherbal medicine. These among other include Republicof North Korea, China, Egypt, Iran and countries withinthe East African region.The Government is currently in the final stages ofdeveloping the National Policy on Traditional andComplimentary Medicine (TCM) and soon to discussthe traditional medicine practice Bill as developed byLaw Reform Commission in 2002 that will regulatepractice of traditional medicine and bring it to nationaland internationally acceptable standards. The policyand bill are waiting input from stakeholders before thebill is tabled to cabinet. The Ministry of Health throughsupport from World Health Organization andcollaboration with stakeholders is also developing codeof ethics for the tradition healing practice. The TCMPolicy, Traditional Medicine Practice Bill and Code ofEthics for Traditional Medicine will stream-lineResearch and Development in Traditional medicine.Continued on page 30

Continued from age 29 – Enhancing Research in the WHOAfrican RegionAs a constituent sector of the proposed Uganda NationalHealth Research Organization (UNHRO), NCRL is tobecome a Research Institute for Traditional andComplimentary Medicine (RITCOM). It will thereforehave a wider mandate to encompass; agronomy, productdevelopment, legal and social aspects as a holisticapproach to research and development in traditionalmedicine and healing practices.With this year’s theme for the 5 th ATM celebrations,stakeholders in traditional medicine will be able to doresearch and development in traditional medicine by;• Adding value to natural products (herbalmedicines) as well as promote investment in thissector thus support the Poverty EradicationAction Plan (PEAP) and Plan for Modernizationof agriculture (PMA) policies• Improving conservation of natural resources fortheir sustainable utilization.• Improving livelihood of the poor people byensuring that they are healthy.• Strengthen the capacity of individuals and localenterprises in research and development in hermedicines.• Ensuring that herbal medicines are standardizedto meet the minimum requirement forregistration and acceptability in the Nationalhealth care delivery system.Natural Chemotherapeutic Research Laboratory is verygrateful to WHO, IDRC and other donor partners for thefinancial support to te government of Uganda for Resarchand development of traditional medicine in Uganda.Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Laboratory wouldlike to wish everybody a successful celebration to markthe 5 th African Traditional Medicine Day.☻☻☻☻☻☻More Herbal Medicines Floodthe Ugandan MarketStella NakakandeDaily MonitorMarch 22, 2008Armed with the art of psychology, witchdoctors devisedways to ensure that the secret of their non-possession ofsupernatural powers would be known only to a fewtrusted practitioners,” writes Br. Anatoli Wasswa of theBanakaloli Brothers in his book Unveiling Witchcraft. Br.Wasswa is a traditional herbalist.In Uganda, herbalists are frequently confused withtraditional healers commonly known as witchdoctors.Herbalists are often criticized because of the negativitythe latter portray. They on the other hand insist that theirapproach to disease treatment is scientific with nomystical power to their medicine.According to Mr Elijah Ntege, they like in modernscience, have laboratories where they carry out tests toascertain the nutrient content of leaves, animal bones,ash, soil and their curative powers in relation to thedisease.Traditional medicine is at the core of the matter. In manyplaces in the country are structures with posts readingHerbal Research Clinic. These have been on the riselately; you are often lost for choice in places like Katwewhere every shop has this label.And like it is said, necessity is the mother of invention;the initiator of al this research seems to have been theHIV/Aids epidemic in the early 90s.Dr. Abubakar Rasid Lukwago of the Dr. YakubuLukwago Herbal Research clinic in Kasubi says that hislate father, Dr Rashid Lukwago who focused on HIVtreatment, founded the clinic in 1990 on William Street.“It begun in 1990 with the onset of the HIV epidemic,”he explains, adding that “our father was mainly handlingpeople living with the virus mainly.”These doctors are true medical personnel as per thepublic eye. They wear white clinical coats, examinepatients, and prescribe doses; the clinics are jammed withpatients seeking healing for their ailments. They are evenreferred to as “doctor”; you do not have to swear by the‘Hippocratic oath’ after all to earn the title.Nonetheless, what is traditional medicine all about andwhy is the herbal research sector suddenly mushrooming?Based on ResearchDr Yakubu Lukwago explains that theirs is treatment andresearch that has grown over the years. “We have movedon from HIV/Aids treatment we can now handle alldisease apart from cancer and sickle cells where we canonly offer tranquilizers since these have no cure.”“We even check for UTI, which is by far the commonestinfection in women,” he as.When it comes to HIV, Dr. Lukwago says, they have theright medicine to boost the immunity and get rid ofunwanted symptoms like lip ulcers commonly called “redlips”, loss of appetite, chronic diarrhoea, Herpes Zoster(kisippi) and cough among others. For the lip ulcers andContinued on page 31-30- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 30 – More Herbal Medicines Flood theUgandan MarketHerpes Zoster, the clinic has a powder and medicatedVaseline applied on the infected area.“It takes five to seven days for these to disappear,” heclarifies.“They even have antibiotics for cough infection as aresult of Tuberculosis.The authenticity of all this of course can only be provedby the user although one wonders why these medicineshave no names. In Kamengo Herbal Research Clinic inKatwe, every bottle has a label of the diseases treatedapart from that containing medicine for HIV/Aids. Theattendant knows it by the liquid’s colour perhaps and itspositioning on the shelves. Like ARVs, one should neverrun out of stock of this, the doctors tell me.MysteriousThey are also hesitant to reveal the contents of theirmedicine. “We mix a couple of things,” they say. Foreach disease, there is a complex set of ingredients. Thecontents are given names like “red liquid” or “blackpowder”. The source of these is also mysterious.“We get trees from Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Somalia,Tanzania and so many other countries,” Dr. Lukwagosays when asked to explain their origin and names. “Wename the species ourselves so they have no definitenaming.”To an onlooker, it is as if they are reluctant to reveal their“magic mixtures”; they want to stay around much longerand no kind of coercion is enough to make them namethese species.They will only restrict themselves to the ingredientsnoting that the main composition of red liquid ismagnesium, zinc and potassium required to boost one’simmunity. The explanation ends there.More interestingly, these herbalists have scientific labsnot only for research but also for analysis of one’s health.They, like with modern medicine, diagnose and check forthe disease, before any prescription is made.Prices range from Shs4,000 to Shs70,000 for the CD4count performed for people living with HIV. They alsohave pregnancy tests.Interestingly though, only one of these herbalists, ElijahNtege of the Babakaloli Brothers said they do not offerHIV/Aids treatment. “What should we treat in HIV?’ hewondered.Well, that begs the question, what do others treat?☻☻☻☻☻☻Have You Tried SomethingHerbal?Rachel KabejjaaSunday MonitorJuly 12, 2008More people are turning their attention to alternativemedicine, herbal or natural beauty products,supplements, and home remedies because they havebeen discovered to be an effective means of curbingailments and barely have side effects.When it comes to beauty solutions, herbal alternativesare made from natural products. These products arealways less or unprocessed hence making them suitablefor all skin types. For ages, our great grandparents livedon such products and they were healthy and lookedgood like the Egyptians for instance and used herbs likefenugreek and roses to prevent wrinkles.Then processed cosmetics became popular only fortable to turn again to herbal solutions hence the boomof both international and local industries manufacturingherbal jellies like Samona and Movit herbal jellies,soaps creams, massage and aromatherapy oils, beautyspas, reflexology, bath gels, moisturizers and herbalpowder containing natural combination of neem tree,basil flowers, aloe Vera, oregano, lavender and othernaturals. Studies have found that aloe Vera which is apopular ingredient in herbal products has antimicrobial,anti-inflammatory, an immune-stimulating actions aswell as large quantities of vitamins E and C, zinc, andamino acids.Thus the healing properties of this traditional planthave finally been isolated. Dr Liu Zheng of NaturalChinese Herbal and Acupuncture Clinic Kira road saysthat herbal products are also cost friendly and don’thave animal products hence causing less or noirritations to the skin.Herbal beauty products also come with advantages likebeing easy to prepare, are readily available even in yourhome compounds. They have no known side effectsand (with some exception) are absolutely safe even forprolonged use, and they can bring long lasting resultsand even complete healing according towww.theherbalbeauty.com. The biggest knowndisadvantage is that some treatments may take months,even years, depending on the problem, for completehealing. However, the first results usually show after10-14 days, which gives sufferers a reason to continuewith the treatment.☻☻☻☻☻☻-31- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Ugandans Now Live Up to 50Years – ReportPeter NyanziDaily MonitorNovember 20, 2007Uganda is one of only two countries that have made thegreatest gains in improving life expectancy in the last 10years, a new World Bank report has shown.According to the African Development Indicators (ADI)2007 that was released last week, the life expectancy ofUgandans has now climbed by seven years to 50, up fromjust 43 in 200l.With Tanzania behind at 46.3 and Kenya at 49.0, Ugandais now the only country above the 50 mark in the GreatLakes region and therefore the best country for those whowant to live a bit longer.Ugandan mothers also have a better chance to surviveduring pregnancy with a maternal mortality ratio of880:100,000 live births compared to Tanzania’s1,500:100,000 and Kenya’s 1,000:100,000.But the situation is not as good for children under-fivewith a mortality rate of 136:1,000 live births compared toKenya’s 120:1,000 and Tanzania’s 122:1,000.Generally, the report says because of HIV/Aids, TB,malaria, and other diseases, improvements in lifeexpectancy have stalled in some countries and retreatedin a few others.Uganda is also largely lagging behind in adult literacyrates with only 57 per cent of females able to read andwrite compared to Tanzania’s 62.2 per cent and Kenya’s70 per cent.The report says poor health and poor schooling hold backimprovements in people’s productivity and the chances ofmeeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).Malaria is still a big concern in the region with152/100,000 Ugandans dying of the disease compared toKenya’s 63/100,000 and Tanzania’s 130/100,000 people.But the report is generally positive about growthprospects for Africa where about 41 per cent of thepeople still live on less than $1 (Shs1,700) a day. On thecontinent, Uganda is listed as second among the countrieswith the largest proportion of people living in the ruralareas (87.4 per cent) next to Burundi (90 per cent).The report says after years of stop-and-start results, manyAfrican economies “appear to be growing at the fast andsteady rates needed to put a dent in the region’s highpoverty rate and attract global investment.”-32- Traditional African Clinic October 2008This growth has been mainly attributed to good policiesand governance, which the report says “matter a greatdeal.”Ms Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank VicePresident for Africa Region said over the past 10 yearsAfrica has recorded an average growth rate of 5.4 percent “which is at par with the rest of the world” but thatthe ability to support, sustain and diversify the sourcesof these growth indicators “would be critical not only toAfrica’s capacity to meet the MDGs but also tobecoming an exciting investment destination for globalcapital.”The report says Africa now enjoys better growthprospects because the leaders have under taken majorreforms over the past decade. But it decries thenegligible role the private sector has played inimproving the living conditions of the citizen.It says accelerating and sustaining growth requiresimproving Africa’s investment climate, spurringinnovation, and building institutional capacity togovern well.☻☻☻☻☻☻Continued from page 21 - Scientists MapGenomes of Malaria ParasitesSome of its genes closely resemble a human geneinvolved in regulation of the immune system.The World Health Organization said malaria killed881,000 people and infected 247 million peopleworldwide in 2006, the latest year for which figureswere available. Some malaria experts say thosenumbers underestimate the problem.Most deaths occur in Africa and are caused by thePlasmodium falciparum parasite, whose genome wasmapped in 2002.The researchers found the vivax genome was similar inmany ways to the falciparum parasite, meaning thatcertain vaccine approaches being tried against theAfrican parasite may be worth trying against this one."During the course of evolution, malaria parasites havedevised different tricks to avoid being detected anddampen the host immune responses," Pain said by e-mail."Thus, it has been rather difficult to find a singleparasite protein that could be used as an effectivevaccine candidate which would provide effective andlong-term protection against all parasite strainscirculating within a given population at a given time,"he said.URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27088500/☻☻☻☻☻☻

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 3, Issue 9 NEWSLETTER October 2008FEATURED ARTICLESUnified Field Theory of Disease and Nutritional Causation orPredispositionsProfessor Charles SsaliMariandina Nutritional Health ProductsDisease is any type of disorder or body function whichis a result of:1. Bacterial, viral, fungal infection.2. Degenerative change in cells.3. Congenital and Hereditary.All can be traced back to some nutritional deficit. Alldiseases would be eliminated from man if the victimwere to be fed on a properly balanced diet right fromthe moment of conception. The development of afertilised egg into a fetus depends on the availability ofnutrients to power and nourish the developing fetus.These nutrients act as free radical scavengers to protectthe body cells from the harmful effects of free radicalsthat come out of body metabolism. The free radicals arecapable of disrupting fetal development. The invasionof body tissues by bacteria, viruses and fungus isdependent on the absence of enough nutrients tostrengthen the immune system, which mops up theorganisms. The free radicals are the ones whichpromote the reproduction of all the invading organismsand in turn the organisms promote the production offree radicals.It is obvious that even congenital or developmentalabnormalities can be traced back to nutrition. Nutritionmay be affected by the use of toxic substances or drugsthat affect cell division leading to abnormalities andcongenital defects. One such chemical is thalidomideand the virus called rubella. All these lead to birthdegenerative diseases like diabetes, asthma,vascular/heart diseases are all traceable to somenutritional deficit, which causes the cell death in theorgans concerned. The pancreas loses the ability tosecrete insulin as a result of the degeneration of thecells in the islets of langerhans. These specialist cellsdie as a result of a nutrition lacking in vitamins andminerals. Taking white sugar from which molassescontaining vitamins and minerals are removed duringprocessing leads to one such ways by which diabetesdevelops. When these nutrients are supplied to theperson with diabetes, the situation improves rapidlyback to normal.All body cells develop from what are called stem cellsin the embryonic stage. A stem cell requires propernutrition as found in vegetable foods in their originalunprocessed state in order to develop with the adultspecialised cells as you find in various body organs likethe brain, liver, glands, skin, muscle, bones, intestinaland respiratory tracts. The lack of liberal supplies ofthese nutrients we find in fruits and vegetables creates adeficiency in the availability of vitamins like A, B, Cetc, minerals like iron, zinc, selenium etc, besides planthormones, enzymes and chlorophyll all of which playan important role in the proper development andspecialisation of body cells. Examples of congenitaldefects that can be traced back to nutrition include,heart defects, spina bifida, missing limbs,hydrocephalus and many others. A liberal supply ofvitamins and minerals are vital in this respect.Infections of the mother during pregnancy includeviruses like rubella which only occur where antiviralnutrients like vitamin A, C and E are in short supply.The virus disrupts the proper cell divisions required tocomplete some body organs like the heart etc.The immune system which protects us from allinfections depends on nutrition to produce antibodiesand the necessary defence cells like macrophages andlymphocytes. Any deficiency in the necessary nutrientsresults in weakening of the immune system which isfollowed by an invasion of the body of bacteria viruses,fungus and even degeneration of body cells. Nutrientshelp the body to clean itself by mopping up freeradicals that we produce during cellular metabolism.These free radicals include hydrogen peroxide, whichattacks cell structures if left in position for too long. Itcan attack vital structures like the cell membrane, thenucleus and mitochondria. The damage they inflict onthe cells is what can cause conditions like diabetesContinued on page 34-33- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 33– Unified Theory of Disease…when insulin secreting cells (islets of langerhans ) die inincreasing numbers till it results in insulin deficiencycalled diabetes. When nutrients are replenished, the cellsregenerate and diabetes can be cured. The same occurs inother body cells where cancer occurs because of thedestruction of mitochondria making metabolism usingoxidation of glucose impossible for lack of the necessaryenzymes in the mitochondria (KREB’S cycle) whichpower the process. This leads the cells to generate heatenergy using fermentation processes and the productionof lactic acid. This is the way cancer occurs in bodytissues like in the breasts, uterus, lungs, glands and othertissues.The cure for cancer must therefore address this anomalyby reconstructing the damaged cell structures andrestoring normal body metabolism. Powerfulantioxidants, which act as free radical scavengers in theaffected parts of the body help the tissues to detoxifyitself and prevent further cell, damage from free radicals.The oxygen that is released by hydrogen peroxide canattack cell structures and cause the equivalent of iron rustin the body. In situations like these, one requires to drinka lot of water in order to enable the kidneys to excretethose impurities from the blood circulation where theymay continue causing traumatic effects on tissues. Wateris an essential part of our nutritional requirements. If thebody is denied water supply, it deteriorates rapidlybecause of dehydration and accumulation of toxicimpurities. These impurities which accumulate in tissuescause body damage by depleting the supplies of nutrientsfrom the food taken in daily. The ageing process isperpetuated by this growing nutritional deficit. As wegrow we cut down on our intake of the essential nutrientsof vitamins and minerals. The sum total of the nutritionaldeficiency and chronic dehydration is the progressiveageing process we observe in everyday life. In such asituation the body cells fail to reproduce themselves asthey should by replacing themselves with identicalcopies. This is why the hair begins to lose pigmentationand becomes gray and the skin loses its elasticity,eventually becoming rough and wrinkled. This is thereason why cancer incidence increases with age orpollution in the internal and external environment. If welook after ourselves properly by taking a well balanceddiet consisting of unprocessed fresh vegetables and fruits,then drink the required amounts of water, then we wouldbe able to maintain our health status close to ideal formany years.Medicinal herbs are no more than foods with the requirednutrients to correct the cellular nutritional deficiency thatled to the diseased state. The use of Contraceptive pills,over use of antibiotics and smoking are some of the formsof drug abuse which drain heavily on nutrients because of-34- Traditional African Clinic October 2008the increased need for detoxification. This is the reasonwhy those who indulge in such practices develop cancerof the breast, lungs, uterus and prostate. Others developdiabetes, Asthma and blood pressure because of thenutritional deficit created by the increase in the demandfor nutrients for the detoxification of free radicals.A disease state like AIDS is a complex manifestation ofnutritional deficiencies that include vitamins, minerals,plant hormones, amino acids and enzymes. The bodyneeds plant ingredients found in leafy vegetables e.g.chlorophyll, lecithin and many others. The HIV invadesthe body by penetrating its cells which are deficient innutrients and abounding in free radicals. This window ofopportunity occurs in all people who indulge in junkfoods, drug abuse, over use of antibiotics, fizzy drinkswith artificial sweeteners. These factors depress theimmune system allowing the virus to successfullyestablish itself in the body. If the free radicals areregularly mopped up using the free radical scavengerscalled antioxidants as found in fresh fruit and vegetables,then the virus and cancer cells are eliminated by thepower of the immune system.During sexual union the male partner ejaculates about 2mls of semen which carry the male spermatozoa. Thissemen also carries with it nutrients to be used by thesperm and the early embryo. To collect these nutrients inthe semen, one pint of the male partner’s blood isstripped of all these elements which include vitamins,minerals, enzymes, hormones etc, etc. Repeatedejaculations can deplete the male partner’s blood ofessential elements required by his immune system. Theresult of such a situation is to make him vulnerable toinfections like viruses and STDs including HIV. This isthe reason why promiscuous males may easily developAIDS which means Acquired Immune DeficiencySyndrome. Semen is rich in zinc and selenium both ofwhich are very important for strengthening immunity byproviding it with specialised cells called T helperlymphocytes. These T helper lymphocytes go through thethymus gland which prepares them for the battlefieldcapability against virus invaders. The thymus glandrequires a lot of zinc to do the job. Selenium is needed tomake the body’s antioxidant called glutathioneperoxidase. This natural antioxidant is very important inclearing out hydrogen peroxide from the body cells. Adiet rich in these nutrients will play an important role inprotecting us against all infections and cancer. Theprostrate gland in the male is the equivalent of the uterusin the female. Both these organs are prone to developingcancer if nutrition is deficient in these essential elementsamong others.On the other hand, female partners stand to gain nutrientsContinued on page 35

Continued from page 34 – Unified Theory of Disease……which are drained out of the male partner’s blood. Mostof the semen’s essential ingredients are absorbed into thefemale circulation through the birth canal. This providesher with the elements mentioned above for addedprotection against nutritional deficiency diseases thatcome as a result of a weakened immune system. Thisexplanation could account for the survival phenomenonobserved among professional female sex workers inKenya and Uganda. These prostitutes have been found tosurvive HIV infection despite their risk factors. It has alsobeen observed that these sex workers begin to succumb toHIV/AIDS when they retire from their profession. Thiswould eliminate the original theory that they have aspecial genetic make up that protects them against HIV. Iam of the opinion that it is the constant liberal supply ofessential nutrients that boosts their immunity to theoptimum levels capable to resisting STDs.Herpes Zoster which is a result of chickenpox virusmanifesting itself as blisters on the skin is anotherexample of the power of the immune system. This virusonly surfaces when the body is malnourished andimmune deficient. The development of cancer cells startswhen the natural killer cells that hunt and destroy themare weakened by poor nutrition. This poor nutrition maybe a result of ingesting overwhelming amounts of toxicsubstances that require large amounts of nutrients toexcrete through the kidneys. If such nutrients are notavailable then the immune system is weakened and thenatural killer cells fail to cope with the cancer celldevelopment in the tissues. This if kept up for longenough, then the particular site develops cancer. Thesetoxic substances like aspartame (Nutrasweet), contraceptivepills, radioactive materials, alcohol, hydrocarbons,asbestos etc, etc. These elements cause the production offree radicals to rise and stagnate in tissues. Thisstagnation leads to the damage of cell wall, DNA crosslinks and mitochondria structural damage. This DNAdamage leads to genetic mutation and cancer changes.The damage to mitochondria structure leads to the failureof the cell to metabolise glucose using oxygen. As aresult of this failure, the cell turns to fermentation toproduce heat energy with the production of a toxic lacticacid. This is what cancer cells do. They multiplyuncontrollably and destroy normal tissues in theneighbourhood. Some of these uncontrollable cells breakoff and carry their characteristics to other parts of thebody as metastasis that spread destruction and death. Thisprocess can be halted by providing the tissues with therequired nutrients to repair the cellular damage in DNAand mitochondria. These nutrients must also strengthenthe immune cells to be capable of destroying the cancercells. This is possible through the use of herbal nutrientswhich contain the necessary ingredients to do the job.This has been achieved in cases of breast cancer, cancerof uterus, melanoma and other cancers.Hormone dependent disorders like diabetes, thyroid glanddysfunction, menopause, libido and many others can beeliminated by providing these necessary nutrients byusing diet and where required, food supplements.Menopause and loss of virility comes because of theprogressive reduction in our food intake as we growolder. As a result of eating processed foods like whitesugar, white flour and processed grain where the nutrientsare removed and fed to lower animals, we developdeficiency diseases like diabetes, scurvy, eczema, lupusand asthma. These come about because our body’simmune systems have been programmed wronglybecause of introducing adverse antigens into the bodythrough vaccinations and inoculations. All theseimmunity or autoimmune disorders could be corrected byproviding the body with the nutrients the body needs toreprogramme the immunity. By providing thesesupplements we have been successful in eliminating allsymptoms and signs of lupus, asthma, eczema, thyroidgland problems and so on.Stroke which is a result of the blocking of blood clottingcould be eliminated. The underlying disorder is in themetabolism of cholesterol leading to partial or completeblockage of a blood vessel. Where there is a blood clot ora ruptured blood vessel and bleeding, you find anaccumulation of free radicals, white blood cells in theclot. This pathology needs nutrients to put it right. Thecholesterol needs nutrients to facilitate its breakdown intoenergy. The blood clot and the repair of the damagedblood vessel will be completed by the white blood cells.We have seen this happen in many cases of stroke whereparalysis disappeared within weeks or months when thenecessary nutrients were provided to the patient. Brainand nerve disorders may develop because of using toomuch alcohol or a diet deficient in vitamins and minerals.Even psychiatric disorders are a result of the body’sfailure to make the right nerve transmitters for lack of theproper nutrients. Where these mental problems existed,we provided the patients with nutritional supplements andan improved diet. The result was an improvement orrecovery from the dementia of a psychiatric problem.As a result of the above observations as summarised, thefollowing conclusion was inevitable. The Unified FieldTheory of Disease and Nutrition (establishes) postulatesthat all disease states have their origin in some form ofmalnutrition at one stage or another. Even those arisingfrom genetic defects could be attributed to the influenceof a mutation that occurred because of a nutritional defectin the diet of the individual or alternatively the mutationContinued on page 36-35- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 35– Unified Theory of Disease…persisted because of lack of proper nutrition. All diseasestates whether they are congenital, infective, anddegenerative have a nutritional factor in their causation,promotion or elimination.http://www.blackherbals.com/mariandian_nutritional_health_products.htm☻☻☻☻☻☻Continued from page 24– To All African PeopleLiving in New Zealand6 months, how can it be that clean-living, monogamousAfricans in New Zealand are more likely to have HIVdisease? There is something very wrong with this picture.Black Africans are much more likely to have a falsepositive test result due to exposure to TB, malaria,leprosy, and inherited blood disorders like sickle cellanaemia, malnutrition and many other factors. MOHstatistics also demonstrate that over 300 Black Africansin New Zealand at this time have HIV disease. Many ifnot most of these likely represent false positives, butpeople are instructed to take anti-HIV medicines that areextremely harmful (and more so to Black people). In thecase of Black African children, the parents are beingordered by the courts to give their children the anti-HIVmedicine.Almost every person taking these drugs experiencessevere and life-threatening side effects. Most adultsdecide the treatment is worse than the disease and stoptaking the drugs. Black African children do not have thisright according to the doctors. Doctors are lying to thecourts by stating that HIV-infected Africans pose a risk tothe wider community if they refuse anti-HIV drugs; eventhe manufacturers drug prescribing sheets state thattaking the drugs does not prevent transmission to others.In any event, HIV appears to have extremely low transmissibility;a study in the US followed hundreds ofcouples where one partner was positive and the othernegative for 10 years. Twenty five percent of the couplesdid not use condoms regularly, and 47 couples reportedhaving unsafe sex, but not one single negative personbecame positive. It is certain that many Africans havedied from taking the anti-HIV drugs. More than 20% ofBlack Americans have a genetic difference in the waytheir body processes the drugs, which can result in blooddrug levels three times higher than they should be – apotentially lethal dose. In Black Africans this geneticdifference is likely to be higher than 20%. When theAfrican person dies from these drugs, the doctors write“AIDS” on the death certificate.We feel these issues need to be raised publicly; BlackAfricans have a right to know these facts. An article high--36- Traditional African Clinic October 2008lighting these concerns is in the process of being writtenand will be published on the scoop.co.nz website, but itisn’t enough. I am hoping that as a prominent African inNZ you can help bring to light these terrible injustices.We have been working with 2 excellent human rightslawyers on one individual case, and the lawyers would behappy to instigate a class-action lawsuit on behalf of allBlack Africans who may have been harmed, or whoserights have been infringed by the racist medical system inNew Zealand.Yours sincerelyFelix Mwashomah & Cathy van MiertTel: 09-5277257, or 09-5261954.☻☻☻☻☻☻Africa: Researchers Record'Major Breakthrough' AgainstMalariaAbimbola Akosile With Agency ReportLagosThis Day (Lagos)15 July 2008Australian scientists yesterday identified a potentialtreatment to combat malaria, a global scourge, which killsabout 300,000 Nigerians, mostly children below fiveyears, annually.According to a report on the British BroadcastingCorporation (BBC) website, researchers in Melbournebelieve their discovery could be a major breakthrough inthe fight against the disease; where the malaria parasiteproduces a glue-like substance which makes the cells itinfects sticky, so they cannot be flushed through thebody.The researchers, according to the report, have shown howremoving a protein responsible for the glue can destroyits stickiness, and undermine the parasite's defence.The malaria parasite, named Plasmodium falciparum,effectively hijacks the red blood cells it invades,changing their shape and physical propertiesdramatically.Among the changes it triggers is the production of theglue-like substance, which enables the infected cells tostick to the walls of the blood vessels. This stops thembeing passed through the spleen, where the parasiteswould usually be destroyed by the immune system.Continued on page 42

Continued from page 27 – The Afrikan Traditional HerbalResearch CentreFood ScienceThe food production and delivery chain is a complexintersection of several sectors of the economy. Thefarmer produces raw agricultural commodities. Thecommodities are purchased by food processors that inturn sell or distribute the product to wholesalers. Thewholesalers market the products to retailers who sellthe raw or modified agricultural products to consumers.Throughout this chain there are opportunities forproduct loss through spoilage and spillage.Obviously post-harvest losses can be reduced if there isa value-added post-harvest system in the country thatproperly stabilizes food for the food delivery system.Such a value-added sector is dependent on severalfactors including a dependable supply of indigenousraw agricultural commodities, an economy thatsupports investment in hardware and industry, aregulatory system that fosters a fair and competitivemarket structure, and a well-trained, educated workforce. It is this last item, a well-trained and educatedwork force that is addressed in this proposal.Uganda represents a large area, capable of producing awide variety of agricultural commodities. The majorityof the current food needs are produced locally, with theremainder being imported. Much of the imported foodsare fully processed and packaged when they arrive andinserted immediately into the distribution andmarketing systems. One obvious mechanism to enhancethe local economy is to convert raw commodities intoconsumer ready products locally. The transfer ofknowledge and technology enhances opportunities toprocess indigenous products to local tastes andcustoms, providing jobs, leading to economic stability.Exporting these products also generates much-neededforeign exchange and brings real development to thecountry and the region. In this way, developingcountries are able to claim a share in global markets,thereby bringing prosperity to their people.Moreover, the benefits of knowledge and technologytransfer with respect to traditional agriculture and foodscience can help to:• Develop programs and policies that strengthenfarmers, businesses, and markets• Increase rural education and training and buildpublic institutions• Expand traditional agricultural research andoutreach to exploit existing and new technologies,such as food science (processing, preservation andpackaging), and information technologies, tostimulate new ties with business and avoid damageto the environment• Coordinate food and agricultural programs withactions to combat poverty, and;• Increase food production for intra and intercontinentaltrade with other Afrikans/Blacksthroughout the Continent and the Diaspora.In Uganda, for example, the use of natural spices andpreservatives such as bird peppers, pimento, cloves,and cinnamon was discouraged by colonial powers andthe medical community. African bird pepper is onesuch spice that grows wild all over Uganda and isextremely beneficial to health. For 10,000 years, thechili pepper has been used as a natural preservative andfor such physical ailments as poor circulation,regulating blood pressure, digestion, and respiratoryproblems. In Jamaica, bird pepper was used by theMaroons (Africans), to naturally preserve meat andfood. Obtaining informational access to Westernresearch libraries and computer databases could go farin providing much needed information on such topicsnot readily available on the Afrikan continent.Afrikan Traditional Medicine (ATM)In all countries of the world, there exists traditionalknowledge related to the health of humans and animals.Presently, eighty percent of the world’s populationsstill depend upon traditional and indigenous knowledgein medicine and herbal practices. In Afrika, traditionalhealers and the herbal remedies made from plants playan important role in the health of millions of people.Afrika has a long and impressive list of medicinalplants based on local knowledge. Based upon holisticprinciples, this science pre-dates Egyptian medicalscience and is between 20,000 and 100,000 years old.In fact, it is the oldest medical science on the planet.Afrikan health practitioners are devoted to teachingindividuals how to improve their physical, mental, andspiritual health through preventative lifestyles. Doctorsand health personnel have continued to shun traditionalmedical practitioners despite their contribution tomeeting the basic health needs of the population,especially the rural people in developing countries.Developing countries have begun to realise that theircurrent health systems are dependent upon westerntechnologies and upon western medicines that areexpensive and whose medicinal supply is toxic, erraticat best or non-existent.The ancient Afrikans believed that a healthy immunesystem is responsible for the health and healing of thehuman body. From this premise, health problems occuras the result of “something lacking” in our nutrition,Continued on page 38-37- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 37 - The Afrikan Traditional HerbalResearch Centreleaving the human body vulnerable to disease. Afrikanmedicine is a nutrient based system. A diet and lifestyledeficient in vital nutrients makes us susceptible toopportunistic infections, and cellular disorganisation(cancer). Western doctors believe that the body destroysitself with disease and that harmful bacteria and virusesare trying to kill good bacteria and viruses. Therefore,they must give toxic, poisonous drugs and vaccines tostop the body from killing itself.The Afrikan system of health disagrees with the idea ofgerms being the sole source of disease. Their philosophyis consistent with the laws of nature, based upon anancient belief in the body’s natural ability to heal itselfwhen given the appropriate herbs, seeds, and foods.Moreover, our African biochemistry requires a type ofnutritional support (African Dietetics) that is not readilyavailable in western cultures or through westernmedicine. The science of African biochemistry is basedon the biochemical molecule, melanin. The lack ofmelanin-sustaining foods (which can be found in plantphyto-nutrients) is one of the major causes of ournutritional deficiencies leading to disease.Currently, we are witnessing a breakdown of westernEuropean systems to cure diseases, derived from bothnatural and unnatural causes. Most pharmaceutical drugs,developed primarily to relieve symptoms, do not curediseases. Vaccines were developed to immunize againstdisease, but can also be use to spread disease. Forexample, immunization by vaccination has been themeans of spreading some of the most fatal and infectiousdiseases, such as leprosy, syphilis, tetanus, tuberculosis,smallpox and presently AIDS, polio and meningitis.Economic interest is the main reason why no medicalbreakthroughs exist for the control or elimination of themost common diseases and why these diseases continuelike epidemics on a worldwide scale. The pharmaceuticalindustry withholds public information about the effectsand risks of their prescription drugs and vaccines andlife-threatening side-effects are omitted or openly denied.Many Blacks in the U.S., like their counterpartsthroughout Africa and the Diaspora, cannot even affordpharmaceutical drugs to alleviate the symptoms ofdisease.In healthcare, intellectual property rights have increasedthe price of pharmaceutical drugs. Generally, the chronicailments and diseases that affect Afrikans in theDiaspora, i.e. cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, etc.are based on improper diet and lifestyles. By design,Afrika is plagued with natural and unnatural occurrencesof communicable, parasitic and infectious diseases, suchas AIDS, malaria, polio, etc. With their corresponding-38- Traditional African Clinic October 2008vaccinations and pharmaceutical drugs, these diseases aredevastating the continent's Black population. TheAIDS/Malaria genocide, taking place in Afrika, ispainting a clear pattern of death, of cultural, economicand agricultural destruction which will be followed byencroaching Western political, economic and militarycontrol.Control over the world’s natural plant resources are alsoat risk. For the very same economic reasons mentionedabove, the pharmaceutical industry has formed aninternational cartel by the code name "CodexAlimentarius" with the aim to outlaw any healthinformation in connection with vitamins and to limit freeaccess to natural therapies on a worldwide scale. Themultinational drug companies are helping to place a banon natural herbal products as well to monopolize thevitamin and herbal remedies as their limitless source ofrevenue. In fact, what is already occurring in manydeveloping countries is "biopiracy", where corporationsuse the folk wisdom of indigenous peoples to locate andunderstand the use of medicinal plants and then exploitthem commercially through patents. From such an act ofbiopiracy, two drugs derived from the rosy periwinkle(vincristine and vinblastine), earn $100 million annuallyfor Eli Lilly. The plant is indigenous to the rainforest ofMadagascar and Madagascar has received nothing inreturn.These same multinational companies have introduceddiseases that can destroy the plants and herbs we use asnatural sources of nutrients, so that we can become moredependent on their products. These are the samemultinational corporations that have a monopoly on thedevelopment and production of genetically modifiedorganisms, pesticides and herbicides, which poison theenvironment and produce metabolic changes in our foodsand in our bodies.Biodiversity is Afrika's richest asset. Traditional knowledgeon the properties of plants, seeds, algae and otherbiological resources is being sought by western scientistsfor medicinal, agricultural and other purposes. Trade inbiological resources is big business today, but the termsare tipped in favour of the multinational corporations andare not in Afrika’s benefit, undermining the collectiverights of communities to biodiversity. Since timeimmemorial, Afrikan people have depended upon freeand open access to a rich diversity of biological resourcesfor food, fuel, medicine, shelter, economic security, andthe exchange and trade of such resources amongthemselves. In agriculture, the commercialisation of theseed market, patents on seed, and the introduction ofgenetic engineering have serious implications forAfrika’s farmers and food security.Continued on page 39

Continued from page 38 – The Afrikan Traditional HerbalResearch CentreMuch of the knowledge on Afrika’s indigenous plantpopulation and their curative powers are from studiesmapped and funded by western countries and stored inwestern information depositories such as PROTA in theNetherlands or from the Medical Research Council inSouth Africa. There exist over 7000 medicinal plants inTropical Africa. Although these studies are far fromcomplete, 76 plants indigenous to Uganda and 208indigenous to East Afrika are listed. Information onindigenous medicinal plants in Uganda needs to begathered and assembled in a centralised location for useby herbalists and other medical professionals. This willallow local indigenous knowledge to be published andprotected and its plant uses, standardised.This rather long introduction, written in 2005 is theintroduction text of a proposal Blackherbals presentedto several Ugandan government agencies and NGOssuch as MPAMBO Multiversity, NationalChemotherapeutics Laboratory (NCRL), NationalCouncil of Traditional Herbalists Associations(NACOTHA), etc. to establish a school of AfricanTraditional Herbal Medicine. The aim and objectives ofour proposal are:• To recapture indigenous Afrikan thought, history,herbal, medicinal and agricultural traditions and allother indigenous knowledge to reeducate ourpeople to Afrikan culture.• To use and integrate this knowledge withtechnology to develop our nation of people,alleviate poverty and achieve higher levels of selfsufficiency,dignity and self-determination.• To take responsibility for Afrika’s health, wealthand education using Afrikan indigenous knowledgeas the foundation for understanding the complexworld we live in today.Who we areWe are Kiwanuka and Nakato Lewis, husband (retiredengineer) and wife (retired research chemist), partners,born in Jamaica and the United States, respectively,descendants of enslaved Afrikans from the Diaspora,standing on the shoulders of our Ancestors.Initially, as RGL Enterprises International Inc.,(registered in New York and Toronto, Canada), wecreated www.Blackherbals.com to address the lack ofherbal/nutritional knowledge among Afrikans/Blacks inthe Diaspora.With the growth of Western medicine, we discoveredthat the use of Afrikan herbal medicine and traditional-39- Traditional African Clinic October 2008foods known by the enslaved Africans in the Diaspora,such as in the United States, was discouraged and hence,most of that knowledge was lost. Many Afrikan societiesthroughout the Diaspora however, retained some of theirAfrikan traditions, such as the Jamaican Maroons.What we had learned from a previous trip to Uganda in2004 was that many Ugandans were also in danger oflosing their indigenous knowledge and the ability to healthemselves using traditional Afrikan healing methods.Ugandans were told by practitioners of Western medicinethat traditional herbal solutions do not work and isconsidered witchcraft. As a result, there is ampleevidence that Ugandans are beginning to suffer the samefate as their brothers and sisters in the Diaspora. What iseven more surprising was that many of the herbs whichcould be used to correct some of the most commonailments of many Ugandans could be found in their owncompounds! Meanwhile, multinational pharmaceuticalcompanies were and are documenting Afrikan herbs andplants with the intent of commercially developing andpatenting expensive new drugs.As Afrikans, we should take ownership of our ancientknowledge and resources and exercise our intellectualproperty rights to pass our indigenous knowledge to ourdescendents for their descendents. The Afrikan’sknowledge of herbal medicine, both on the continent andin the Diaspora, is far older, than any indigenous groupon the planet. But, there are not many books for the worldto see on Afrikan Traditional Medicine (ATM). Wesuggested that Uganda can become a world model bytaking the initiative and developing an independent andalternative health care system based primarily but notsolely upon their indigenous knowledge of herbs, foodand plants.At that time, however, we were told by everyone thatUganda lacked the capacity, the infrastructure and theresources for these types of endeavors. So we elected tostart our own clinic - The African Traditional HerbalResearch Clinic/Centre - to learn first-hand about Africanherbal-based medicine, traditional herbs and their uses, toconduct clinical research on herbal plants for use in ourherbal formulations that could positively impact thehealth of Afrikan people everywhere and finally to learnabout African Spirituality and its integration in holistichealing.RGL Enterprises Intl/Blackherbals at the Source of theNile UG Ltd. is registered in Uganda since November2005. In February 2006, The African Traditional HerbalResearch Clinic/Centre was established with the initialhelp of NACOTHA, of which Kiwanuka Lewis is amember and the clinic is registered as a traditional herbalassociation. Both Kiwanuka and Nakato are registeredContinued on page 40

Continued from page 37 – The Afrikan Traditional HerbalResearch Centrewith the Ugandan Government as traditional herbalists.Our first two years was devoted to the research anddevelopment of herbal formulas, in a clinical setting, toaddress the health problems of continental Afrikanssuffering from traditional African diseases and chronicdiseases acquired from the adoption of Western culture.Many of the local herbs have been tested in the treatmentof various symptoms at our research centre. The resultsare very, very encouraging. Our BHSN formulas containselected wild-crafted herbs gathered and collected fromhistorically traditional sites throughout Uganda. Theherbs we collect and use are traditional organic, free ofall pesticides, herbicides, chemical inputs and whennecessary produced using traditional agriculturalmethods.We have established good working contacts with othertraditional herbal groups in Central Uganda (WalussiMountain, PROMETRA) and with Kasese/Rwenzori areain western Uganda, (KADDENTHCA), enabling us tolearn from them as they are learning from us. Recently,our contacts have extended to groups in eastern Ugandaas well as to groups in the war-torn north.We have attended various workshops and symposia, suchas NCRL, Malaria Consortium, NAPRECA, UgandaIndustrial Research Institute, Uganda Historical Memoryand Reconciliation Council, Inter Cultural Union ofUganda, Makerere University and Marcus Garvey PanAfrikan Institute in Mbale. At MPAI, Kiwanuka is aresearch fellow and Nakato is on the Board of Directors.Kiwanuka is also an executive Board Member of theWalussi Spiritualists Committee. Walussi Mountain incentral Uganda is our village.ATHR ClinicWith information gathered from a community needssurvey conducted by BHSN in Bukoto Parish, Kampalain October 2005, we identified 12 immediate diseasesaffecting area residents. Therefore, our efforts wereconcentrated on herbal medicines for these disorders. Ourresearch uncovered many existing traditional Africanherbal formulas. With respect to usage, standardization,quality control and dosage, we have sought to refinedthem and to created and develop new ones as well. Ouraim is to use this concept throughout variouscommunities in Uganda to effectively fight diseases athome, the natural way. We have been asked to take ourconcept abroad to other parts of the African continent andto the Diaspora where our people are suffering from thesame diseases, only in larger numbers.Since then, we have provided treatment for over 60-40- Traditional African Clinic October 2008diseases, symptoms and conditions with varying degreesof success. Our present patient load is over 300 peopleand new patients are arriving everyday. Most of ourpatients have multiple health problems. As required byour protocol, none of our patients take westernpharmaceuticals. Some of the services we offer are noninvasivetreatments for:1. AIDS (Herbal Antiviral)2. Malaria3. Diarrhea/Constipation4. Heart problems (pressure, circulation, strokes)5. Diabetes6. Sexual Transmitted diseases7. Respiratory ailments (asthma, colds and TB)8. Ulcers and other Digestive disorders9. Skin diseases and rashes10. Arthritis and Rheumatism11. Reproductive problems -Fertility (Men andWomen)12. Tumours and Growths13. Sickle Cell Anemia14. Central Nervous System (Epilepsy)15. Cancer16. Paralysis17. Gout18. Weight Loss19. Urinary Tract Infections20. Hepatitis21. Detoxification22. Energy Tonics23. Muscle Pain24. Feminine Problems25. AddictionsOver 35% of our patients were presented to us withmalaria symptoms. Many were previously diagnosed withrecurring malaria and laboratory tests continue to showparasites in their blood even after taking westernprescription medicines. Our treatment consists of onlythree bottles of Blackherbals’ Malaria Mix (withoutartemesia) taken over a period of 4-6 weeks. Laboratorytesting of our patients have confirmed the absence ofthese parasites after treatment and many of our patientshave remained parasite-free for nearly two years and stillcounting. Our formula has been effective in the treatmentof malaria even during the onset of symptoms as well asin the prevention of disease. Therefore, it is very puzzlingfor us and difficult to accept that there can be a malariaepidemic in Uganda when herbal medicine is equally ifnot more effective than western pharmaceuticals.Moreover, we have able to increase the CD-4 count ofHIV/Aids patients using herbal detoxification and herbalantiviral formulas. Thus we have been able to effectivelyContinued on page 39

Continued from page 38 – The Afrikan TraditionalHerbal Research Centretreat both malaria and HIV patients while reducing theside effects associated with taking westernpharmaceuticals for HIV/Aids and malaria. In addition,there is no shortage of the herbal medicine since weonly use local herbs.Fifty-four percent of our patients present themselveswith digestive problems, namely ulcers, gastritis andgout. These disorders are generally associated withUgandan diet, the love for milk, meat and alcohol. Wehave been able to completely eliminate gout, healulcers and gastrointestinal problems even in patientswith advanced symptoms.Our herbal formula for diabetes, ‘DIA-B’ has beeneffective in controlling blood sugar levels to the pointthat one only has to monitor oneself and make thenecessary corrections through diet and exercise tomaintain control, thus eliminating the need for constantmedication.Thirty-one per cent of our patients suffer from highblood pressure and other pressure-related problems.One of the major causes is the Ugandan love for saltand salty food. This is a common problem not just forUgandans but Black people worldwide. Along withdietary changes, Blackherbals ‘BP’ has been verysuccessful in maintaining normal blood pressure levelswithout the side effects usually experience withpharmaceuticals. Incorporating the use of spices inone’s food has gone far to help our patients alleviatethe salt from their diet. Some of our patients, who havebeen on blood pressure medication for years, use onlyherbal medicine to control their blood pressure.Forty percent of our clients have some type ofrespiratory disorders. In the dry season, Uganda can bevery dusty and many people are affected, developingflu-like symptoms and cough. Patients suffering fromasthma, bronchitis and pneumonia have foundsubstantial relief taking our respiratory mixes.Thirty-five per cent of patients are women complainingof female problems to include painful menstruationfibroid tumours and blocked tubes, some requiringsurgery. We have been successful in reducing the sizeof the tumours, saving many from surgery. We havehad 100% success rate with goiters and some hernias.All of our patients are detoxified prior to or duringtreatment. For some, detoxification is all that isrequired for the symptoms to disappear. We alsoprovide patient counseling on their dietary habits andwhat they can do to improve their health naturally. Weprovide information in the form of newsletters andarticles to educate and enlighten our patients on their-41- Traditional African Clinic October 2008conditions. We believe that an informed patient is one whowill begin to take responsibility for his or her health,because ultimately that is where it belongs.We train our employees to develop proper work ethics, todisplay honesty, integrity and accountability andtransparency in all endeavors as well as pride in themselvesand the work they do. This is our biggest challenge.The Way ForwardFor the past six months we have been standardizing ourformulations to determine dosage, shelf life and efficacy inconcordance with the standards set forth by the NationalChemotherapeutics Research Laboratory, the National DrugAuthority and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards. Inthe coming months, our formulas will be presented to thesegovernment agencies for formal registration and approval.We are proud and happy to say we have made somesignificant achievements and contributions. Our newproduct line at BHSN reflect many Afrikan traditional plantmaterials whose uses are documented throughout theAfrikan continent, but have never been actively promoted.In conjunction with MPAI, we are helping to establish aSchool of African Traditional Medicine over the nextseveral years.Blackherbals has introduced a new service to link our clinicoperations with our internet storefront. We do custom madeformulations for off-site patients in health crisis who do nothave access to herbal practitioners. What we require is aletter or email stating the problem, your symptoms, yourdiet, current prescriptions and any diagnostic data providedby doctors, hospitals, etc. This information is used to set upyour patient chart and to determine the individual efficacyand effectiveness of our formulas. We formulate herbalsolutions for various health problems and symptoms, that inmany cases can be just as effective in treating the illness asprescription medicines, which in many cases can becomeresistant to the disease, will only address one issue of theproblem, or may be too toxic. A custom-made diet isdetailed for the patient because the Afrikan diet is essentialto our good health and recuperation. The cost of ourformulations is dependent upon the type of medicalproblems, quantity and availability of required herbs,number of formulations needed and duration of treatment.Our prices are very affordable. Please email usclinic@blackherbals.com for more details. We lookforward to hearing from you soon. We invite you also tovisit us online at www.blackherbals.com to learn moreabout us and our concerns on the survival of Black people.In our own small way, we are helping to bring about a“Black Awakening” not just with words but through activeparticipation in this historical process.☻☻☻☻☻☻

Continued from page 36 - Africa: Researchers RecordMajor BreakthroughThe Australian team developed mutant strains of P.falciparum, each lacking one of 83 genes known orpredicted to play a role in the red cell remodelingprocess. Systematically testing each one, they were ableto show that eight proteins were involved in theproduction of the key glue-like substance.Removing just one of these proteins stopped theinfected cells from attaching themselves to the walls ofblood vessels, the report revealed.Professor Alan Cowman, a member of the researchteam at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of MedicalResearch, said targeting the protein with drugs, orpossibly a vaccine, could be key to fighting malaria."If we block the stickiness, we essentially block thevirulence or the capacity of the parasite to causedisease," he said.Malaria is preventable and curable, but can be fatal ifnot treated promptly. The disease kills more than amillion people each year. Many of the victims areyoung children in sub-Saharan Africa.Available statistics indicate that one out of every fiveNigerian children will die before their fifth birthday,with malaria alone being responsible for one quarter ofthese deaths.Malaria is said to be responsible for an estimated 30 percent of deaths among children, 11 per cent amongpregnant women and 80 per cent of diseases in reportedcases in health facilities. It is certainly the leadingcause of morbidity and mortality in the country.Records also show that 50 per cent of Nigeria'spopulation suffers from, at least, one episode of malariaattack each year. The disease accounts for over 45 percent of all outpatient visits.The Federal Government spends millions annually onawareness campaigns and provides malaria controlmeasures, which involves programmes such as the RollBack Malaria Initiative, where special insecticidetreatedbed-nets are produced and distributed to thepeople, especially nursing mothers.Various countries and international organisations suchas Japan and the World Health Organisation (WHO)are also collaborating with the country in the fightagainst her 'biggest' killer.In the country, malaria is directly or remotelyresponsible for the loss of millions of productive hours,resulting in colossal reduction in individual andcollective productivity.The Kano State Commissioner for Health, Malama AishaIshiaku, recently stated that the malaria scourge accountsfor an annual economic burden of about N132 billion inNigeria.Reports also revealed that in Africa, malaria accounts for10 per cent of the continent's disease burden as well as the$12 billion yearly lost in productivity.Globally, about 40 per cent of world population (2.4billion) is known to be at risk. An estimated 300-500million cases of malaria occur globally every year.http://allafrica.com/stories/200807150155.html☻☻☻☻☻☻HIV ‘Hides from Drugs forYears’BBCMarch 16, 2008HIV can survive the apparently effective onslaught ofantiretroviral drugs for years by hiding away in the body’scells, research shows.The US National Cancer Institute found low levels ofdormant HIV in patients seven years after they started – andresponded well to - standard therapy.The finding confirms patients must take drugs indefinitely,and that any break runs the risk of rekindling infection.The study features in Proceedings of the National Academyof sciences.People with HIV need to take treatment indefinitelybecause current drugs cannot reach this pool of dormantvirus. The researchers followed 40 patients infected withHIV for seven years.Doctors do not usually record infection levels once thenumber of HIV particles falls below 50 per milliliters ofblood.However, the NCI team used highly sensitive equipment tomeasure infection levels below this threshold. They foundthat the virus was still present at low levels in 77% of thepatients.The research suggests that although potent antiretroviraltherapy can suppress HIV infection to almost undetectablelevels, it cannot eradicate the virus.The researchers said that even though levels of the virusthat remain are low, they are high enough to rekindleinfection if treatment is interrupted.The risk of infecting others is low, but cannot be ruled out.They believe HIV may be harboured by CD-4+ cells, whichparlay a role in the immune system. Continued on page 43-42- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 44- HIV hides from Drugs for YearsThese cells are most likely infected before therapy wasinitiated and the amount of virus they produce is small.Researcher Dr Sarah Palmer said: “It is extremelyimportant that new drugs are developed to eradicateHIV infection as the side effects associated with longterm HIV treatment can be severe.She also warned that failing to take prescribedmedication raised the risk that HIV could begin todevelop resistance, rendering future treatment lesseffective.☻☻☻☻☻☻Only 5% Rural ChildrenAccess ARVs – StudyDavid MafabiDaily MonitorMarch 26, 2008Only 17 per cent of the children infected withHIV/Aids in Uganda access anti-retroviral drugs.Of these, less than five per cent are from rural areas,according to research done by Baylor College ofMedicine Children’s Foundation-UgandaMost of the 83 per cent infected children in rural areasdo not access treatment and usually die, Baylor Collegeof Medicine Children’s Foundation Uganda [BCMCF-U] regional coordinator Dr Peter Elyanu says.BCMCF-U is an indigenous, child focused NGOspecialized in child HIV/Aids and affiliated to theBaylor International Paediatric Aids Initiative (Bipai).Dr Elyanu, a paediatrician, was last Wednesdayaddressing medical staff, district leaders, andrepresentatives of NGOs involved in the fight againstHIV/Aids in Pallisa town during a conference to seekways of increasing child HIV/aids services in theregion.He said due to lack of access to ARVs, about 75 percent of children infected with HIV/Aids die before theage of five.Dr Elyanu said whereas currently Uganda has close to140,000 children living with HIV/Aids and another25,000 continue to be infected annually, access topaediatric HIV/Aids services and ARTs have remainedlimited to the central region thereby leaving many ofthe infected children in rural areas dying within thefifth year.He said, in most government health centres meant toprovide services for the children visited in eastern Uganda,less than one per cent of the children access ARVs.Dr Elyanu said in Budadiri health centre IV in SironkoDistrict and Amuria health centre IV in Amuria District,although 85 and 94 children infected with HIV/Aidsrespectively have been registered to get ARVs, only one isaccessing it at each of the centres.Dr Elyanu said at Budaka health centre IV and PallisaHospital, only four children are accessing ARVs.He said les than three children are accessing ARVs inKumi, Bukedea, Bukwo, Kapchorwa, Kaberamaido,Katakwi, Butaleja, Bududa and Manafwa.☻☻☻☻☻☻ARVs can double Patients’Lives - StudyKakaire KirundaDaily MonitorJuly 31, 2008People using antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can now expect tolive into their 60s and beyond, if finds from an internationalstudy are anything to go by.A report published in the Lancet medical journal indicatespeople living with HIV/Aids could have ARVs prolongtheir lives by anywhere between 30 and 50 years, meaninga person that embarks on ARV therapy at 20 could live upto 70 years.Analysing 18,587 (1996-99), 13,914 (2000-02) and 10,584(2003-05) patients on combination antiretroviral therapy(ART), researchers from Canada and the United Kingdomsought to compare changes in mortality and life expectancyamong HIV-positive individuals.Results from 14 studies in that period show that Aidsrelateddeaths decreased progressively through the years,accounting for a 40 percent reduction by 2005.Published in the July 26 edition of the Lancet medicaljournal, the study showed that an individual startingsuccessful HIV treatment aged 20 would be expected tolive to be 63, and that a patient initiating an anti-HIV drugsregimen aged 35 could live to the age of 67.Since the 1966 introduction of antiretroviral therapy,combination therapy regimen have become more effective,better tolerated and have been simplified in terms of dosing.The researchers also found that starting treatment with aCD4 cell count above 200 would mean that a person aged20 could expect to live to be 70, and that a 35-year-oldcould survive into their 72 nd year.Continued on page 44-43- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 45 – ARVs Can Double Patient LivesA CD4 count is used to assess the immune status ofHIV infected persons.In Uganda, there are currently about 132,000 people onantiretroviral therapy, yet nearly 300,000 require thedrugs.However, the government recently allocated Shs60billion to the health sector for the procurement ofARVs, a move likely to bring another 150,000 personsliving with HIV on treatment.Uganda has set a target of putting 263,000 people ontreatment by 2012, and 342,000 by 2020.But this raises questions on sustainability, as 95 percent of the ARV programme is currently donorsupported, mainly by the American-funded President’sEmergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) initiative.☻☻☻☻☻☻Drug Factories Sub-StandardBy Conan BusingeNew Vision (Kampala)18 July 2008THE majority of drug manufacturing companies inUganda do not meet operational standards, according toa new survey. A survey by the National Drug Authorityrevealed that several companies will be closed soon,after their grading is completed. The companies werenot named.The report was presented at the authority's annualgeneral meeting at Protea Hotel in Kampala onThursday. It noted that most companies do not meetrequired minimum production standards. It also foundunsanitary protective uniforms, change rooms,production rooms, stores, corridors and wash areas formanufacturing vessels.""Half of the manufacturing companies had problemswith cleaning sanitary premises," said Nasser Mbaziira,the eastern regional drug inspector, "A number of themhave procedure guidelines, but no records; and thereverse was true for others." He added that there werealso anomalies in the flow of the production process.The inspectors explained that there should be a specificflow of the production process to avoid contaminationand back flows."Much as there is improvement in documentation ofmanufacturers' activities, the majority of them do not-44- Traditional African Clinic October 2008record the production process," said the report. It also notedthat half the companies did not have internal audit systemsand there was little input from the managers in theproduction process.Despite the shortcomings, the companies had hand washingfacilities, ongoing installations of air-conditioning systemsand quality control labs.Mbaziira said the firms would be graded in five categoriesdepending on their performance. "The worst ones withcritical working conditions will have their certificates andlicenses withdrawn. They will also be instantly closed."Copies of the survey's highlights, which were given to theparticipants, were later withdrawn after complaints fromsome manufacturers who wanted the results to remainconfidential."This is unfair to us. How are we going to convinceexporters that our products are of good quality? You shouldhave addressed the press, exporters and manufacturersdifferently," retorted one as several participants nodded inapproval.However, the authority's chief inspector, Kate Kikule, said:"There is nothing to hide. In this way we can build our localproducers by improving their products' quality. All drugsare inspected before getting to the market."Only those that meet the standard are distributed to thepublic."NDA chief Apollo Muhairwe stressed that the "inspectionswere done to develop the local drug manufacturingindustry."http://allafrica.com/stories/200807210123.html☻☻☻☻☻☻CDC: 1.1 million Americanshave AIDS VirusPopulation living with HIV grows as more become infected,survive longerOctober 2, 2008WASHINGTON - A new estimate of how many Americanshave the AIDS virus puts the number at about 1.1 million,the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said onThursday.The CDC numbers, based on 2006 data, show thepopulation living with HIV is growing as people becomenewly infected and as more patients survive thanks to HIVdrugs.The report also suggests that past estimates that more than 1million Americans were living with HIV overstated theContinued on page 45

Continued from page 44 – CC: 1.1 M Americans haveAIDS Virusactual total number of people with HIV infections at thetime.The agency used different methods than it has in thepast to calculate the number. Its most recent nationwideestimate of 1 million had been given for 2003, andusing the new methods the CDC figured that 994,000were living with HIV that year."These data really show the continued impact that theepidemic is having on Americans, and they reallyreinforce the severe toll that is experienced in multiplecommunities," the CDC's Richard Wolitski said in atelephone interview.The CDC report reinforced previous findings that theepidemic disproportionately affects blacks of bothsexes as well as gay and bisexual men.As the number of people living with HIV grows, sodoes the cost of providing medical services to thispopulation and the burden on the U.S. health caresystem, Wolitski said.The CDC estimated that about one in five — 232,700of the 1.1 million people infected with the humanimmunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS — did notknow they were infected. The total U.S. population is300 million."We're not going to be able to treat our way out of thisepidemic. We need to have strong prevention programsso we can prevent these infections from occurring inthe first place," said Wolitski, acting chief of the CDC'sHIV/AIDS prevention division.Men made up three quarters of people with HIVinfections.The CDC previously reported that more people arebecoming infected each year than previously estimated,with 56,300 new HIV infections in the United States in2006. Previous estimates put the number of newinfections at about 40,000 a year.Of all the people infected with HIV, 48 percent weremen who have sex with men, the CDC said. Whilemale-to-male sexual contact was the leading cause ofHIV infections, heterosexual sex — mostly womenhaving sex with men who are injection drug users —accounted for 28 percent of HIV-infected people.Injection drug use, which spreads the blood-borne virusvia contaminated needles, contributed 19 percent of theHIV cases.Blacks make up 12 percent of the overall populationbut accounted for 46 percent of those infected with HIV(510,100 people). About 35 percent of those with HIVwere white and 18 percent were Hispanic, according to theCDC.Black women were nearly 18 times more likely than whitewomen to be infected with HIV, while black men were sixtimes more likely than white men, the CDC said. Hispanicswere 2.6 times more likely than whites to be infected.In 2006, about 14,000 Americans died of AIDS. At the endof 2006, the disease had killed nearly 546,000 Americanssince being first recognized in the early 1980s.To make the new estimates, the CDC used information onnew HIV diagnoses taken from 40 states with the best dataand AIDS diagnoses and deaths taken from all 50 states, aswell as a statistical method called "back-calculation."Globally, 33 million people have HIV and 25 million havedied of it.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26993069☻☻☻☻☻☻HIV Spread Still High DespiteFall in InfectionEvelyn LirriinSaturday MonitorAugust 2, 2008Uganda is one of the countries where a significantprevention of new infections of HIV has been registered,the latest report by the Joint United Nations Programme onHIV indicates.The report released on July 29 says that much of thedramatic declines have been as a result of change in sexualbehaviour.“In a number of heavily affected countries such as Kenya,Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, dramatic changes insexual behaviour have been accompanied by declines in thenumber of new infections,” the report says.It says that a decline in new infections in these countrieshas contributed to the global stabilization of people infectedby the virus since the late 1990s.According to the report, some of the factors contributing tothe decline in sexual behaviour are the increased use ofcondoms and abstinence from [sex] until later years.The report warns that even with the registered prevention ofnew infections, there is still a long way before the promiseof an Aids free generation is fulfilled. It says that progressis still uneven across countries, and the epidemics futurestill uncertain.Continued on page 46-45- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 45 – HIV Spread Still High DespiteFall in InfectionUganda has been promoting the ABC – Abstinence, BeFaithful and use a Condom approach for HIVprevention. This enabled the country to reduce itsnational HIV prevalence from about 30 per cent in theearly years of the epidemic to about 6.4 per cent todate. However, recent trends indicate that since 2000,the prevalence has stagnated.This latest comprehensive report published by Unaidsis based on progress review reports from 147 countriesglobally as part of efforts to implement the 2001declaration of commitments on HIV.The report also says that increased financing for HIVprogrammes, especially in low income countriesincluding Uganda has contributed to loweringprevalence and preventing new infections.The Director General of the Uganda Aids Commission,Dr Kihumuro Apuuli, said in Uganda’s ProgressReport that some of the factors driving the epidemicinclude behavioural, social, cultural, economic andgeographic factors like poverty and early marriage.Dr Apuuli said that new infections are found highestamong cohabiting married or widowed people. Thisgroup category, he said contribute to 42 per cent of thenew infections, conventional sex contributes 22 percent, mother to child transmission 21 per cent, whilecasual sex contribute to 14 per cent of new infections.According to Dr Apuuli, currently the HIV prevalencerate is 6.4 percent, with percentages higher in the urbanareas at 10.1 per cent while in the rural areasprevalence stands at 5.7 per cent.In a press statement, the executive Director of Unaids,Dr Peter Piot said the positive progress should besustained. “Gains in saving lives by preventing newinfections and providing treatment to people living withHIV must be sustained over the long term,” he said.“Short term gains should serve as a platform forreinvigorating combination HIV prevention andtreatment efforts and not spur complacency,” Dr Piotadded.☻☻☻☻☻☻Daily Monitor Brief - May 8, 2008At least 27,000 babies in Uganda are born withHIV/Aids every year, according to new statisticsreleased by the Parliamentary Committee on HIV/Aids.Less than 20% of HIV positive pregnant women haveaccess interventions to prevent mother to childinfections.☻☻☻☻☻☻HIV Infection Rate HighAmong ForcesBy Rehema AanyuNew Vision (Kampala)17 July 2008The rate of new HIV infection is high among the armedforces compared to the civilian population, the directorgeneral of the Uganda AIDS Commission has said.Dr. Kihumuro Apuuli noted that the infection rates weretwo to five times higher among the forces than in thewhole population."For every two people put on anti-retroviral (ARV)treatment, five more are infected. It is like chasing amirage."He observed that the armed forces were also at increasedrisk of contracting and spreading HIV due to theirmobility.Apuuli was on Tuesday addressing the army, the Policeand Prisons Service chiefs at the Kampala Protea Hotel.He attributed the new infections to increased interactionbetween combatants and civilians, and rise in commercialsex.Apuuli also cited decreased availability of health servicesrelated to sexually transmitted infections and the lack ofadequate knowledge and means to prevent transmission.The armed forces should incorporate HIV/AIDSinterventions in their programmes and counterstigmatisation of victims, Apuuli suggested."The armed forces must help in building bridges betweencommunities and vulnerable groups to make their liveseasier."He also called for more funding to expand access to antiretroviraltherapy as well as medicines to treatopportunistic infections and other sexually transmitteddiseases.The director of HIV/AIDS interventions in the army, Lt.Col. Stephen Kusasira, said the disease was the maincause of death in the force.He said they were incorporating sensitisation on thepandemic in all command duties and training.The meeting was organised by the Community Healthand Information Network.☻☻☻☻☻☻-46- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Circumcision may notreduce gay male HIV riskStudy: No clear proof procedure protects men whoare intimate with guysOctober 7, 2008WASHINGTON - There is not enough evidence to saycircumcision protects men from getting the AIDS virusduring sex with other men even as studies show itprotects them when having sex with women, U.S.researchers said on Tuesday.A review of 15 studies involving 53,567 gay andbisexual men in the United States, Britain, Canada,Australia, India, Taiwan, Peru and the Netherlandsfailed to show a clear benefit for those who werecircumcised, researchers from the U.S. government'sCenters for Disease Control and Prevention said.Circumcised men were 14 percent less likely to beinfected with the human immunodeficiency virus, orHIV, than those who were uncircumcised, but thefinding was not statistically significant, the CDCresearchers said."You can't necessarily say with confidence that we'reseeing a true effect there," said the CDC's GregorioMillett, who led the study that appeared in the Journalof the American Medical Association."Overall, we're not finding a protective effectassociated with circumcision for gay and bisexualmen," Millett said in a telephone interview.Studies involving men in Africa, where the AIDSepidemic is primarily spread by sex between men andwomen, showed that male circumcision halved the riskof female-to-male HIV infection.Experts say this reduced HIV risk may be because cellson the inside of the foreskin, the part of the penis cutoff in circumcision, are especially susceptible to HIVinfection. The virus also may survive better in a warm,wet environment like that found beneath the foreskin.But whether circumcision might lower the risk of HIVinfection in sex between men had remained unclear.Gay and bisexual men play a much larger role in AIDSin many countries outside of Africa, the epidemic'sepicenter.For example, the CDC last week said 48 percent of the1.1 million Americans infected with HIV are men whohave sex with men. More than three-quarters of U.S.men are circumcised."We really cannot recommend overall male circum-cision as a strategy for men who have sex with men in theUnited States," Millett said.The CDC's Dr. Peter Kilmarx, who was not involved inthe research, said the agency is preparing formalrecommendations on circumcision in the United States,with a draft due to be made public early next year.Millett said there are signs circumcision might protectcertain gay and bisexual men depending on sexualpractices. The virus can be transmitted through blood orsemen.Studies in Australia and Peru showed that men whoengaged in insertive anal sex only and were not beingpenetrated by male sex partners got a significantprotective effect from HIV infection from beingcircumcised, Millett said."Of course, if you're being penetrated by a partner duringsex, you being circumcised is not going to protect youfrom HIV infection," Millett said.Millett said two U.S. studies and one in Peru conductedbefore the introduction in 1996 of combination drugtreatment for HIV infections, called highly activeantiretroviral therapy, or HAART, showed thatcircumcised men were 53 percent less likely to beinfected with HIV than uncircumcised men.He said it is possible that since the advent of HAART,which helped turn HIV infection into a chronic diseaserather than a death sentence for many people, some gayand bisexual men may have felt freer to engage in riskysexual practices.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27074050/☻☻☻☻☻☻The Other Face ofCircumcision in HIV WarDaily MonitorAugust 1, 2008Michael BahinyozaHIV PreventionThe Geneva-based World Health Organisation hasreportedly, over the last couple of months been leadingUN Agencies (UNAIDS), UNICEF, UNFPA) to supportparticularly African countries to develop malecircumcision policies and strategies in thebroader/comprehensive HIV prevention strategy.The follows results from the three RandomisedControlled Trials (RCTs) undertaken in Kisumu (Kenya),Rakai (Uganda), and Orange Farm (South Africa) showingthat male circumcision could reduce the risk of heter-Continued on page 48-47- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 47 – The Other Face of Circumcisionosexually acquired HIV infection in men by about 60per cent.According to media reports, Rwanda has already rolledout male circumcision in the military, a country whereironically, circumcised men have a higher rate of HIVthan ‘intact’ men. (www.circumcisionandHIV.com)A colleague told me last week, seven of his friends (allof them single) had been circumcised in this endedmonth of July and that the RCT findings had majorlyinfluenced their decision. It is worth noting thatbecause of information deficiency and other challenges,there have been a number of exaggerated claims madefor the reported efficacy of male circumcision inpreventing HIV infection.Many people are not even aware that the results fromthe above mentioned randomized Controlled Trials areabout prevention of female-to-male HIV infection.Secondly, not many young people (and probably adultsas well) seem aware that the trial results clearlyindicated that male circumcision reduces the riskinfection. Unfortunately, many young male adolescentsand some men prefer reading or hearing reducing therisk as eliminating the risk. Undoubtedly, there is ‘aheaven of difference’ between risk reduction and riskelimination and hopefully, this can be well grasped inthe preventive campaign against HIV/Aids.Reputable senior research fellows, Garry Dowsett andMurray Coach, from Australia suggest in their findings;“The use of male circumcision in preventing HIVinfection” that the results of the three RCTs containexaggerated claims. In his work; “The Demonisation ofthe Foreskin and the Rise of Circumcision in Britain.”Darby RJL, too brings to the fore what he considersinformation that the respective supervisors of the threeRCTs should not have ignored.Apparently it turns out that all the three RCTs wereterminated early, arguably before the incidence of HIVinfection in the circumcised males caught up with theincidence of infection in the non-circumcised males. Itis therefore highly probably that non-circumcised gotinfected more quickly than their circumcised friendsbecause the circumcised males required a period ofabstinence after circumcision, suggesting, among otherthings, likely that if the studies had continued asinitially scheduled, the difference in infection incidencebetween the two groups males would have been small.As has been noted by our own Ministry of Health, malecircumcision does not protect women. Since viral loadis the cardinal predictor of the risk of HIVtransmission, male circumcision would not reduce the-48- Traditional African Clinic October 2008viral load and thus infectivity to the female partner.For now, it may be wise for our own Ministry of Health,the medical fraternity and the public to be cautious andnot to be overwhelmed by the hyperbolic’ promotion ofmale circumcision in HIV prevention.Pre-marital chastity and fidelity, nurtured and supportedby needed life skills within viable and dynamic supportgroups, remain time-tested HIV/AID preventiveweaponry as the infected and affected are given neededcare and support.☻☻☻☻☻☻Breakthrough Reported inMalaria Drug TrialKakaire KirundaDaily MonitorMay 1, 2008Canadian scientists working with Ugandans at MakerereUniversity have reported that their novel drug candidatesto treat malaria have demonstrated good safety in theirfirst toxicity tests in animals.This was announced on Monay in a press release by theCanada-based Upstream Biosciences Inc. The Institutewas founded in 2004 in the Canadian province of BritishColumbia.“Researchers reported that Upstream’s anti-malarialcandidates were well tolerated, with no signs of serioustoxicity at likely healing dosages,” the release reads inpart.According to the researchers, activity in this range in anew class of anti-malarial drugs has the potential torepresent an important advance in the treatment of aresistant form of the disease.The release said the new data represents the third set ofpositive toxicity results in animals obtained byresearchers at Makerere University for Upstream’s drugcandidates for malaria, trypanosomiasis andleishmaniasis, all diseases caused by related parasites.“These first positive toxicity results in animals for ouranti-malarial candidates mark an important step in ourprogrammed to develop safe and effective drugs to fightthis pervasive condition,” Mr. Joel Bellenson, CEOUpstream was quoted as saying.However, in a follow-up interview with Daily Monitor,Mr Bellenson said researchers can now move on totesting the drugs in sick animals,” and we know how higha dosage ceiling we can use for this testing.”Continued on page 49

Continued from page 47 – Breakthrough Reported inMalaria Drug TrialAsked how soon human trials would begin, he said itwas hard to make precise predictions about the timingof trials.He added: “Drug development has several stages andsometimes requires taking one step back to make twosteps forward. When we get the animal efficacy data, itwill tell us whether we need to use our artificialintelligence software to make the drugs more potent orless toxic.”Mr. Bellenson explained that the current malarial drugshave a similar mode of action and the parasites becomeresistant to chemicals related to these older drugs quiteeasily.“Our compounds are a completely different chemicalstructure and are therefore likely to work by blockingdifferent proteins activities,” he added.“In addition, our compounds may have anotheradvantage to work against sleeping sickness, Naganaand kala azar as well as malaria. This would simplifydrug stocking logistics and administration to sickpatients.”Malaria is the leading cause of illness and death inUganda, accounting for 25-40 per cent of all outpatientvisits at healthcare facilities.Up to 20 per cent of all hospital admissions and 15 percent of in-patient deaths are due to malaria.☻☻☻☻☻☻Farmers Reap Fortunes ofMalaria TreatmentGodwin Muhwezi-BongeDaily MonitorMarch 4, 2008Mr. John Tabaro, an elderly farmer in Kabale Districtwho has tilled the land for years growing mainlysorghum made his first Shs2 million last year thanks toa “little-known” crop Sweet Wormwood whosescientific name is Artemsia annua.“I made about Shs2 million after three months ofgrowing [it], I had never made so much money before[and now] I managed to take my children to school andall I think of is more and more artemesia,” he saidgleefully.Such is the reception the alien crop has received in anarea with no tradition of growing cash crops that afterthree seasons of uninterrupted cash flow, farmers are-49- Traditional African Clinic October 2008considering replacing of traditional food crops with thequick maturing artemesia, a crop used in the productionof artemesinin - an ingredient in the manufacture of antimalariadrugs such as Coartem, and Artemether.“I have so far given up on growing sorghum, a traditionalcrop regarded highly in the area. “I prefer Artemesiabecause it matures faster [3 months] and gives higherreturns compared to sorghum that takes seven months,”he said.Two years ago, farmers like Mr. Tabaro were hard tofind. “People were at first reluctant to take on the cropbecause of the bad experience they had had with the nowdefunct Agro Management [a company that introducedpyrethrum growing in the area],” Mr Cleth Rugwiza, theextension officer of Aflo Alpine Pharma Ltd (AAPL),said.Introduced in 2005, artemesia was not well received asfarmers remained reluctant to hurriedly replace their foodcrops with the untested cash crop on fragmented pieces ofland.When the pioneers registered successes, Mr Rugwizasaid, more farmers then clamoured for more seedlingsfrom extension agents. Outgrowers have since grownfrom 350 farmers when the crop was first introduced tomore than 12,000 farmers to date.“We did a lot of work to diminish the negative experiencethrough sensitization in churches, and public gatherings,”he said.Mr. Aggrey Bitungukye, another farmer, said:” At first, Ithought a kilogramme of dried leaves was difficult toraise but when I managed to raise about 220 kilogramsfrom my piece of land, I picked up even more interest.”Income BoostPersuaded by the need to diversify incomes ofsubsistence farmers in Kabale, Aflo Alpine PharmaLimited, introduced the cultivation of a locally grown,affordable anti-malarial treatments, for distribution inlocal, regional, and international markets.“Kabale was chosen for its alpine climate akin to that ofVietnam and India where the plant is mainly grown,” MrRugwiza said.Chloroquine and quinine-based derivatives have longbeen used in the treatment of malaria in sub-SaharanAfrica, where the disease kills about 3,000 per day.However, patients’ increasing resistance to traditionalanti-malarial drugs, and the need to stem off malarialdeaths has given birth to a new line of treatment inArtemesinin Combination Therapy, of which artemesiniaextracted from Artemesia annua forms a vital component.Continued on page 51

NDA to Licence Herbalists,Regulate FoodHerbert MugaggaDaily MonitorNovember 19, 2007The National Drug Authority will start licensingherbalists in the country to ease monitoring. This wasdisclosed by Dr Josephine Nanyanzi, the Authority’sInspector of Drugs in an interview with Daily Monitorlast week.Dr. Nanyanzi said the institution is currently holdingconsultative meetings with herbalists and at the sametime sensitizing them to come up with appropriateguidelines. He said the move aims to ensure thatpremises where herbal medicines are stored or sold aresuitable for the purpose. “We are mandated to ensurethat the available drugs are of good quality and best ofthe public.☻☻☻☻☻☻Policy to RegulateHerbalists in OffingDaily MonitorNovember 11, 2007Government has drafted a policy to regulate operationsof traditional healers. “If passed, the policy wouldcreate an enabling environment for the full and suitableutilization of traditional and complementary medicinein addressing some of the challenges facing the naturalhealthcare system,” said Mr. Franklin NsubugaMuyonjo, a ministry of health consultant.☻☻☻☻☻☻Uganda: 23,000 IllegalHealers in MasakaDismus BuregyeyaNew Vision (Kampala)16 July 2008A total of 23,115 traditional healers in Masaka are notregistered, according to the district traditional healersand herbalists' association.The chairman, Ssalongo Kayinga, told The New Visionon Tuesday that Nyendo Division alone had 343 illegalhealers. "We have only 38 registered healers in Nyendoyet the division has 381 practicing. The situation isworse at the district level where out of the 24,000traditional healers only 885 are registered," he said.Kayinga said he had reported to the resident districtcommissioner. He noted that half of the healers inMasaka were from Tanzania, Burundi and the DR Congo."We are planning a major operation against illegalhealers. We expelled the Maasai from Kenya, who hadflocked the region, because of their dubious characters,"said Kayinga."But we still have a problem with the Tanzanians. Theseillegal healers sexually exploit women clients, exposingthem to HIV/AIDS."The southern regional Police chief, Andrew Sorowen,urged immigration officials to stop foreign healers fromentering the country illegally. He noted that local leaderswere no longer crosschecking the documents of newpeople coming to reside in their areas."The LCs should check for stamped letters from theircounterparts where the new residents originate becausewe may end up harbouring criminals." Sorowen blamedchild sacrifice on illegal traditional healers.☻☻☻☻☻☻Tanzanians kill Albinos forLuckBBC, TanzaniaApril 4, 2008Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete has ordered acrackdown on witchdoctors who use body parts fromalbinos in magic potions to allegedly bring people goodluck or fortune.“This is senseless cruelty. It must stop forthwith,” JakayaKikwete said on television, AFP news agency reports.“I am told that people kill albinos and chop their bodyparts, including fingers, believing they can get rich whenmining or fishing,” he said. The order comes after themurder of 19 albinos in the last year.The BBC’s Vicky Ntetema in Dar es Salaam says there isa widespread belief in Tanzania that the condition is theresult of a curse put on the family.Old women with red eyes have been killed in parts ofTanzania, after being accused of witchcraft, she says.In the past, Tanzania’s Albino Society has accused thegovernment of turning a blind eye to the killing ofalbinos.There are some 270,000 albinos among Tanzania’spopulation of some 35 million, the highest population inEast Africa.☻☻☻☻☻☻-50- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

Continued from page 49 - – Farmers reap Fortunes“We extract up to 98.6 per cent of Artemesinin fromdried leaves of artemesia annua,” Mr. RobertTumushabe, the factory supervisor of AAPl, said. Thefactory processes 12 tonnes of dried artemesia leavesper day. One tonne of dried Artemesia leaves producessix kilogrammes of crude artemesinin crystals.The Artemesin is then sold to the world’s renownedpharmaceutical companies such as CiplaPharmaceutical of India from where Artemesinin-baseddrugs are manufactured.“Our market is worldwide but we sell most of our bulkin India,” Mr Freedie Zagyeda, the chief executiveofficer of AAPL, said.There is growing demand for Artemesinin as leadingpharmaceuticals on manufacture of Artemesinin-baseddrugs after World Health Organisation authorizedArtemesinin combination therapy as the new line ofmalaria treatment.Unfortunately, this demand has not translated intohigher Artemesinin prices on the world market insteadprices have been falling. World market prices fell from$350 per Kg in 2005 to $200 per Kg in 2007, a thingthat has negatively impacted on the company’s bottomline.Although Mr Zagyenda maintains that the fallingArtemesinin prices on the world market will not affectthe company’s relationship with the farmers,testimonies show that the farmers are already feelingthe pinch. Out-growers are complaining that theirproduce is rotting away in their stores as the companyremains reluctant to collect.“I have sacks of dry leafs stuck here,” Mr Bitungukyesaid. “Much as I would like to keep growing artemesia,I cannot because of lack of market.”Mr Tabaro said: “Nowadays these people [AAPL] buyon credit. They are not treating us as they didpreviously.” He added: ‘I have stop planting because Icannot sell.”Growing StockMr Zagyenda said the company cannot abandonfarmers and will stick to its promise of buying whateverstock the farmers have.“We provide free seedlings to farmers through ourextension agents; it is a joint investment. That isassurance enough that we have interest in their stock,”Mr Zagyhenda said.According to him, the company slowed down onbuying as a way to contain the growing stock. “We-51- Traditional African Clinic October 2008slowed down on buying as a way of storing the stockwith the farmers. Currently we have more stock than theavailable warehouse space,” he said. “As soon as wedispose of the stock in our stores, we will begin buying.”He said buying on credit is part of the company’s newsystem of “streamlining field payment.” The companydiscarded the “on-spot payment system”, though popularwith farmers, had its own shortfalls.“Farmers would bring to buying centres more or lessproduce than anticipated, which disorganised ouraccounting system” Mr Zagyenda said. “We later adoptedan organized way of buying where we issue holdercertificates to farmers for whatever we have bought.”SpeculatorsHe believes the current discontent among farmers ismainly fuelled by speculators who were caught off guardby the company’s change of heart.“They buy quantities in the hope of cashing in on thestock during the time of scarcity. They are now gettingimpatient,” he said. “Genuine farmers stay put becausewe will begin buying in two months time.”AAPL operates an out-grower scheme supported by thecompany’s nucleus farms. Farmers receive technicaladvice from the company’s extension who have basictraining in the agronomy and management of Artemesiaannua.“We train extension workers to assist farmers with thegrowing of Artemesia,” Mr Rugwiza said. It is theseagents that also determine the quality of the leaf. Theagents mainly operate in the five regions of KabaleDistrict.Farmers receive free seedlings from extension agents.Farmers then plant the seedlings, which take about 3 to 4months to mature before harvest.The leaves are dried for 2 to 3 days and later sold atcollection centres before it is transported to the factoryfor processing. A kilogramme of dried artemesia annualeaves cost Shs1,000 per kg. The plant is best suited tothe alpine climate present in Kabale.And as such, the plant has not encountered diseases,which makes it easier for farmers. Trials are also goingon in the surrounding district of Mbabara andNtunogamo. “There are dry leaves waiting to be collectedin Mbarara,” Mr Rugwiza said.As the world prices of Artemesinin continue to tumble,the company is planning to diversify its product range.“We conducting trials for new crops,” Mr Zagyenda said.The company has hired services of an Indian Agronomist,Dr S.K. Natarajan to carry out the trials.☻☻☻☻☻☻

Continued from page 53 – 9 M Ugandans Starvingcountries.“It is the neighbouring countries such as Kenya andSudan that are causing food shortages for Ugandabecause much of the food produced is taken there,”Mr Tongul said.He said the WP was now changing its strategy fromfood aid to food existence by supporting foodproduction programmes rather than keep buyingand donating it, except in special circumstances.He revealed that last year, the WP spent $55million to purchase food in Uganda, adding thatWP expects to spend close to $100 million nextyear if the situation continues to worsen.☻☻☻☻☻☻Uganda’s PopulationGrowth at 1.2 M AnnuallyEvelyn LirriDaily MonitorJune 27, 2008A fertility rate of 6.7 per cent among Ugandanwomen is contributing to the country’s highpopulation which experts say is now growing by1.2 million people annually.This surge in population growth, which isreportedly among the highest worldwide threatensto put enormous pressure on the government’sability to provide social services like health,education and housing.“Every year the population of Uganda increases byover 1.2 million people, and at this rate, the countrywill have 130 million people by 2050,” thePopulation Secretariat said in a statement toannounce this years’Population Day set for July 11.Uganda will celebrate the day in Mbarara Districtunder the theme “Promote and Invest in familyPlanning for National Development’.The day focuses on the right to access to familyplanning information and services to help peoplemake informed choices about reproductive healthissues.“This theme is timely because Uganda’s populationis growing at a high rate and there are fewmeasures in place to check this, “the statementreads in part.“Uganda’s population grew from 4.8 million people in1950 to 24.3 million in 2002. It is estimate to be about 30million today.” It says that a high population willundermine the country’s efforts to achieve socialeconomictransformation and development.”The Population Secretariat which falls under the Ministryof Finance, Planning and Economic Development,observes that the high population has a bearing on thecurrent rising food prices and food shortages both inUganda and globally.Although the availability and use of effectivecontraception is a key to slowing population growth, only24 percent of married women in Uganda reportedly usecontraceptives.☻☻☻☻☻☻Briefly - Condom Shortage byOctober – MPDaily MonitorJune 27, 2008Uganda is likely to face a shortage of reproductive healthcommodities by October this Network for AfricanWomen Ministers and Parliamentarians members said.“We are likely to have a severe shortage of condoms byOctober, Mityana MP Sylivia Namabidde said. “It will bevery severe if the Ministry of Health does not prioritisethese commodities.” Members of NAWMP said thebudget had not addressed the issue of reproductive healthyet the country is among those committed to attainingMillennium Development goals and especially the fifthMDG. The fifth MDG aims at reducing of maternaldeaths to three quarters by the year 2015. However, themembers said the country was unlikely to achieve thissince the budget never mentioned anything aboutmaternal health.☻☻☻☻☻☻Only 38% Ugandans KnowTheir HIV StatusDaily MonitorApril 19, 2008The Minister of Health, Steven Mallinga has said 38 percent Ugandans know their HIV status and said thisnumber is still low if HIV/Aids is to be controlled andprevented from spreading further. Dr Mallinga disclosedthis on Thursday while launching the Routine HIVCounseling and Testing at Hoima Regional ReferralHospital. The Minister called upon the entire populationto go for free HIV/Aids counseling and testing.☻☻☻☻☻☻-53- Traditional African Clinic October 2008

C ALENDAR OF E VENTSSPECIAL EVENT:Mission StatementOur aim at The African Traditional HerbalResearch Clinic is to propagate and promote theawareness in Afrikan peoples at home and abroad oftheir health, biodiversity, history and culturalrichness. We gather pertinent information on theseissues and disseminate these freely to our people inUganda, the rest of the continent, and anywhere inthe Diaspora where Afrikans are located…. One ofthe main ingredients for increasing poverty, sickness,exploitation and domination is ignorance of one'sself, and the environment in which we live.Knowledge is power and the forces that control ourlives don't want to lose control, so they won't stop atanything to keep certain knowledge from the people.Therefore, we are expecting a fight and opposition toour mission. However, we will endeavor to carryforward this work in grace and perfect ways.“Where there is no God, there is no culture.Where there is no culture, there is noindigenous knowledge. Where there is noindigenous knowledge, there is no history.Where there is no history, there is no scienceor technology. The existing nature is madeby our past. Let us protect and conserve ourindigenous knowledge.”☻☻☻☻☻☻PLACE: AFRIKAN TRADITIONAL HERBAL RESEARCH CLINICTIME:Afrikan Traditional Herbal Research Clinic1175A Mukalazi Road, P.O. Box 29974Bukoto, Kampala, Uganda East AfricaPhone: +256 (0) 782 917 902Email: clinic@blackherbals.comADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTEDHerb of the MonthKATAZAMITI (Bridelia micrantha)Despite intensive efforts to control malaria and HIV/AIDS,these diseases continue to be the greatest health problemsfacing Africa. It is estimated that there are at least 300million clinical cases (worldwide) of malaria per annum,making it and HIV/AIDS (33-36 million worldwide) two ofthe top three killers among diseases in Africa.Katazamiti, native to sub-Saharan Africa is a semideciduousto deciduous tree up to 20 m tall with a denserounded crown and tall, bare stem. All parts of the plant areused in traditional medicine. Bridelia micrantha, as it isformerly called, is traditionally used in the treatment ofstomach ailments and diseases such as gastritis,salmonellosis, gastro-enteritis, diarrhea and constipation,tapeworms and as an emetic for poisons (causes vomiting).Scientific studies have shown that extracts of the wholestem demonstrate antimicrobial activity by inhibiting thegrowth of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) andcampylobacter jejuni/coli. It is used as a treatment for skinproblems such as ulcers, boils and rashes; for respiratoryproblems such as persistent cough, TB, pneumonia,bronchitis and pleurisy; as an analgesic (pain reliever); asan antimalarial; for toothache and gum diseases; for painfulmenstruation; to prevent abortion; as a stimulate andrestorative tonic (alternative) for fortifying pregnantwomen; for sickle cell anemia, HIV/AIDS; and anemia ingeneral. Preliminary research on medical properties ofKatazamiti has shown this herb to be beneficial in treatingHIV/AIDS as it cures diarrhea and stomach discomfort andhas anti-cancer properties, which are common illnesses inAIDS and contributes to the well-being of the patient. It hasalso been shown to be a possible principle inhibitor to HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. Katazamiti is also traditionally usedin treating psychological problems such as neurosis andpsychosis and for protection against one’s enemies.☻☻☻☻☻☻Mailing AddressStreet Number and NameCity, Country, etc.BULK RATEUS POSTAGEPAIDPERMIT00000NO.-54- Traditional African Clinic October 2008