South Africa’s Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang says South African HIV/Aids patients should be given the option to turn to traditional forms of medication as an alternative to anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment.
She said garlic in particular was a key ingredient in the fight not only against HIV/Aids but also a range of troubles including influenza. It was particularly useful in fighting bacteria and fungus ”in the intestines and in the vagina”.
She was speaking at a news conference of the social cluster ministers at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday morning.
Tshabalala-Msimang, who has come under repeated fire for her rapport with dissidents who believe that vitamin treatment can fight HIV/Aids, said: ”Reports from provinces suggest that a total of 50 009 patients have been started on anti-retroviral treatment, in accordance with policy guidelines.”
Emphasising that 80% of patients at state hospitals and clinics visited traditional healers before they came to the state for care, she said that patients should be given the option of going the traditional medicine route.
She emphasised that the traditional method ”is cheaper” than the Western antiretroviral treatment route.
”Give patients a choice,” she said.
‘Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition’
Speaking in Pretoria in May this year, Tshabalala-Msimang said that she refuses to be ”pressured” into increasing the anti-retroviral rollout to meet the target of three million patients on ARVs by 2005.
Tshabalala-Msimang said people have ignored the importance of nutrition and stated vehemently that she will continue to warn patients of the side effects of anti-retrovirals.
She said she had always felt it was her responsibility to inform Aids patients that they have three options — to improve nutrition, take micronutrients or enrol in the ARV programme.
But she said she lacked detailed information on how effective the ARVs were.
”Raw garlic and a skin of the lemon — not only do they give you a beautiful face and skin but they also protect you from disease,” she said, adding that beetroot was also a vital ingredient in any diet.
More than 63-million people worldwide are estimated to be infected with HIV/Aids, and South Africa lays claim to having the highest infection rate.
Manto: Medicine regulations have cut prices
South Africa’s medicine regulations have led to price cuts, said Tshabalala-Msimang on Tuesday.
She said the first phase of the medicine pricing regulations ”has yielded a 19% reduction in the ex-manufacturer price of medicines when compared to the previous blue book price.
”Savings of between 15 and 30% have also been reported by medical schemes,” she said.
Government’s regulations currently control the price at which manufacturers can sell medicines to their customers and cap pharmacists’ mark-ups at R26. ‒I-Net Bridge and Sapa