By Harold Ayodo
Life for a HIV-positive couple living in the sprawling Mathare slums in Nairobi can be one of hardship and despair.
Many such people have resorted to herbal medicine and instead of Anti-retro Viral drugs (ARVs) because they cannot afford square meals, which are advisable to go with the latter therapy.
Peter and his wife Mary Nafula, who are HIV-positive, say they resolved to seek traditional treatment because they could not afford a good diet.
"Without a good diet, the side effects are very harsh on the patient," says Mary.
Therapy
"Most patients on anti-retroviral therapy can only afford to eat matumbo (tripe) and ugali, before taking drugs," Mary says.
She says she and her husband resolved to embrace herbal treatment whose doses do not require them to eat a lot.
Ruth Atieno (left), a traditional birth attendant-cum-herbalist attends to a patient at her Mathare A4 clinic, Nairobi. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/standard] |
Mr Agripa Okoth, 45, who is among several traditional doctors in Mathare said to be behind survival of many of many infected people in the slum, says his herbs do not cure the disease but helps restore patients’ health.
Housewives
"I do not have a cure for Aids but my boiled herbs make bedridden patients regain good health," says Okoth.
Patients with bouts of diarrhoea, cough and skin rashes, which he terms as secondary infections, go to him for treatment.
"There are couples who also come for treatment with their infected children and I prescribe herbs depending on their age," says Okoth.
Okoth who gets his herbs from Nyanza says he treats more patients than just those within the slum.
"There are people who do not believe in conventional medicine and prefer to come to me for herbs," Okoth says.
Mary says some of her fellow infected housewives who resolved to follow her way are now back to their feet.
"We feel better after taking the herbal treatment as we can go through our daily house chores and fend for our children," Mary says.
She says survival for an infected person in the sprawling slum is difficult due to abject poverty.
cash strapped
"It is hard to come by a Sh20 coin for food… going to public hospitals for ARVs needs transport which we do not have. Okoth’s herbs are the better option," Mary says.
Another beneficiary of the herbs, Ms Milka Wangechi says getting ARVs in public hospitals are not easy to due to unavailability or the long queues to get them.
"Maybe we would not have embraced the alternative of herbal treatment if we had public hospitals within the slum offering ARVs," Milka says.
She says the problem they have is when an infected mother gives birth to an infected child unknowingly.
"Most of us deliver with the aid of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) who do not know our status and that of the baby," Mary says.
She says some of her colleagues only come to know of the status of their children after about two years.
