Meetings and more
Trip Start
Nov 27, 2008
1
6
Trip End
Dec 17, 2008
Blue Mountains,
Australia
Friday, February 6, 2009
The Crazy German is literally that - a mad German scientist, living of all places in Kakamega, Western Kenya, and working on some solar project which to us will be quite useful. Apparently he's the father of solar power and looking at him, I'd believe it. The guy is ancient. We worry about his ability to finish the project - setting up our new health clinic with enough solar power for a fridge and some lights - let alone being around long enough to cash in on the 10 year warranty should something go wrong. But for solar, he's our only option and seems to know what he's talking about.
His office is full of home-made, energy saving paper lamps which he periodically switches on via a solar powered generator - his very own light show demonstration. Four of us 'oohh' and 'ahh' for the tenth time when he does it again, in between talking about some hydro powered thing he came up with and is now being used for something in China. All we want to know is how much we'll need to fork out for the panels and when we finally get down to it, it's actually a pretty good price. I think we were all surprised when he finally handed over an illegibly scrawled quote and we were ready to make our speedy getaway when his wife poked her head through the door.
Now faced with two crazy, conversation starved Germans and a now full cup of blackcurrant juice I knew we were in trouble. But the necessity of escape hit critical point when The Crazy German's wife started talking about herb garden - specifically, her healing herb garden. I knew this wasn't going to go down well with the two doctors in the room, especially when she told them that unless they were surgeons their medicine was poison rubbish with more side effects than cures. Completely unlike her healing herbs, specifically Artemisia, which could be used in its 'pure form' to treat not only malaria, but about 20 other ailments including HIV! Wonderful. Not only did we find a solution to our power problems, but also the cure for HIV. Why wasn't the World Health Organisation all over this?!
Aside from the fact that Artemisia does NOT cure HIV, in its 'natural' form it is also highly unstable. The 'pure' form has a very low bioavailability - basically this means it's not well absorbed by the body - so the tea this woman makes is not only conducive to producing resistant forms of malaria (as the once popular quinine also did), but the effectiveness of the drug wears off after about 2-3 hours. Presumably you need to drink a hell of a lot of tea for it to have any effect; which is exactly why the WHO recommends that the lovely, pure Artemisia be mixed with Lumefantrine to create the apparently evil yet highly effective, stable and un-resistant malaria treatment, Coartem.
The problem I have with this woman is the fact that she's a killer. She's got one thing right - Artemisia is a great little plant with the unique ability to destroy malaria parasites. It's particularly effective as a semi-synthetic combined drug against resistant strains of malaria - something I found out on my last trip to Kenya. But when you go around on radio as an authoritative white 'doctor', telling a bunch of desperately hopeful people that they can cure their symptoms of HIV by drinking a cup of tea... then your ignorance is akin to hacking these people to death with machetes while they sleep.
If it's one thing Africa doesn't need, it's false hope and misguided education. I went to the Artemisia website and found a bunch of very vague claims that supported the use of Artemisia in curing patients with cancer, HIV, diarrhea, malaria - some of the biggest killers in Kenya. A child suffering from diarrheal illness or malaria doesn't need tea - it needs a doctor. A father with HIV shouldn't be thinking it's ok to sleep around because he's taking Artemisia. A country and a culture that is just coming to terms with its medical crises and taking steps to educate, learn and develop doesn't need a home-grown quick fix that has no proven results. Artemether works, yes - in controlled drugs and controlled cases - but to recommend it as a cure all for people living in areas where simple illnesses will kill you is a terribly way of profiteering off the poor.
The work that we do in Kenya is simple. We try to educate, we provide medication, and we continuously look for ways to ensure poor, rural communities have sustained access to quality, basic healthcare. I can understand the rationale behind using herbs such as Artemether; a family can grow their own supply and treat malaria at home as it arises. They can even sell it to their neighbours to make a little extra income. On paper, it looks like a marvelous solution; cutting out the often expensive medical middle man and giving remote families an instant quick-fix. In theory, it's just another deadly romanticisation of a very real problem that kills hundreds of thousands of people a year - most of them children. What we need to do, and what Kenya Aid spends much of its time and money on, is providing infrastructure that allows for Western standard healthcare, not a patch up job simply because it's 'Africa'.
A guiding principle we often use when deciding on a course of action is 'would you give it to your mother?' or 'if it were your child, what would you do?' I know an untested and unreliable tea isn't what I'd be giving my child if they were suffering from malaria. And anyone could forgive me my snort of laughter when The Crazy German pointed out that the herbs didn't seem to be working very well as his wife's arm was still broken.
