Zambia to try 'herbal remedy' as a treatment for HIV/AIDS

The United Nations paints a grim picture of the health situation in Zambia. One in every six adults in Zambia is living with HIV, life expectancy at birth is below 40 years and 630,000 children in Zambia are AIDS orphans.

Now Zambian health authorities have begun trials of three herbal medicines to see if they can be used to treat HIV/Aids.

According to Health Minister Sylvia Masebo, who was speaking at a a press conference in the Zambian capital Lusaka, twenty-five people with HIV will take part in the three-month trial, which the health minister says conforms to World Health Organization guidelines.

Masebo says the move is a momentous occasion for Zambia as it establishes a partnership between conventional medicine and traditional medicine.

However an AIDS charity spokesperson was sceptical about the trials, saying the only known effective treatment was anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.

Dr Patrick Chikusu, principal investigator of clinical trials of traditional herbal remedies, said 14 natural remedies had been narrowed down to three to be submitted to the final stage of clinical trials.

One of the three drugs is a formulation mixed by a former government minister and constitutional lawyer, Ludwig Sondashi.

The cost of ARV drugs, which have been shown to be effective in suppressing the effects of the virus in the West, are too expensive for most people in developing countries to afford.

Genevieve Clark, of the British charity Terence Higgins Trust, says they understand why people are desperate to find anything that helps, and anything that boosts the immune system helps, along with anything which can be done in terms of eating healthily and being healthy.

But she does add that to date herbal remedies have not been proven to help, and the only thing proven is anti-retroviral treatments.

She is also concerned that the test sample of 25 people was not large enough to be a "proper clinical trial".