Medical Pluralism can be defined as the existence of multiple healing systems as well as the various options of healthcare within a society. Pluralism has always existed in health care systems and there have always been multiple practitioners to choose from and multiple ways of understanding health and healing. There are two recognized health care practitioners in South Africa. These practitioners are the traditional herbalist or traditional healers who specialize in more traditional remedies and the latter would be a doctor who specializes in Western remedies and medicine.
According to DM Eisenberg, doctors should inquire about complementary and alternative medicine use by their patients to protect them from harm. For instance, doctors should …show more content…
It was a very contriversal period in South Africa as many government officials were discouraging the use of arv’s and instead wanted the infected patients to use a traditional, herbal remedy, which then had yet to go through any clinical testing. “In 2006, journalist Belinda Beresford of the Mail & Guardian reported on the controversial use of the herbal ‘remedy’ Ubhejane for people living with HIV.Beresford wrote that South Africa’s former Health minister, Manto Tshabalala- Msimang recommended its use for people living with HIV even though the concoction, which is made up of more than 80 herbs, had yet to undergo clinical testing.”(Levine 2012: 56).
Personally, it is my opinion that because South Africa was still democratically young, many people listened to what the government was saying and followed their advice and their instructions. I believe that this period in South Africa, the people were vulnerable especially those who had the virus, those who were poorer and less knowledgeable on the subject.
In Levine’s article she mentions that the deputy editor of IRIN’s Hiv/AIDS news service, Kanya Ndaki had argued that during this period where arv’s were “ARV medicines were scientifically proven to reduce mother-to-child transmission and the onset of opportunistic
According to DM Eisenberg, doctors should inquire about complementary and alternative medicine use by their patients to protect them from harm. For instance, doctors should …show more content…
It was a very contriversal period in South Africa as many government officials were discouraging the use of arv’s and instead wanted the infected patients to use a traditional, herbal remedy, which then had yet to go through any clinical testing. “In 2006, journalist Belinda Beresford of the Mail & Guardian reported on the controversial use of the herbal ‘remedy’ Ubhejane for people living with HIV.Beresford wrote that South Africa’s former Health minister, Manto Tshabalala- Msimang recommended its use for people living with HIV even though the concoction, which is made up of more than 80 herbs, had yet to undergo clinical testing.”(Levine 2012: 56).
Personally, it is my opinion that because South Africa was still democratically young, many people listened to what the government was saying and followed their advice and their instructions. I believe that this period in South Africa, the people were vulnerable especially those who had the virus, those who were poorer and less knowledgeable on the subject.
In Levine’s article she mentions that the deputy editor of IRIN’s Hiv/AIDS news service, Kanya Ndaki had argued that during this period where arv’s were “ARV medicines were scientifically proven to reduce mother-to-child transmission and the onset of opportunistic