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REMINDER - ABSTRACT DEADLINE APPROACHING...

Call for papers

Traditional Medicine and HIV/AIDS – a workshop in the Department of Anthropology and in Association with the Centre for African Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, 
University of London, 18th-19th April 2006. 

In Africa, and other parts of the world affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, traditional medical practitioners considerably outnumber biomedical practitioners, and they treat a large 
proportion of patients suffering from HIV-related illness as part of their everyday practice. Despite this close involvement with HIV/AIDS, work with traditional medical practitioners 
and the pandemic remains a marginal activity. This workshop aims to explore the state of knowledge on this topic to date, and to set forward an agenda for the future. 

Possible themes include:
1. Collaboration between traditional medicine and biomedical control agencies. 
World Health Organization policy and some other National AIDS Control Programmes refer to the inclusion of traditional practitioners within HIV/AIDS control initiatives. Such 
projects are still few and far between, but, where they exist, what has been their impact? How do traditional medicine practitioners view their biomedical counterparts and vice 
versa? Are these projects limited to a one-directional flow of knowledge from biomedicine to traditional medicine, or has a space for dialogue been opened? How have patients 
experienced such initiatives and do they find them useful? In what ways do these projects lead to change in the practice of both traditional and biomedical practitioners? Are there 
implications for the identity of each medical discipline as boundaries are blurred between competing medical practices? What are the ethics of these projects? On the one hand, 
traditional medical practitioners are reputed to carry out harmful practices, but on the other, how ethical is it to exclude them from policy? 

2. Traditional pharmacopoeia.
Traditional herbs and medicines have long provided a source for new biomedical pharmaceutical products, and the search to find a cure for HIV/AIDS has proved no exception. 
What is the potential of the traditional pharmacopoeia to contribute to medicines which are used to alleviate HIV-related illnesses, and even the search for a cure? Is there an 
impact on efficacy when these medicines are taken out of their ‘traditional’ context? What protection can be offered to the intellectual property rights of traditional practitioners, 
and how they can be involved in this research?

3. Experience of traditional practitioners.
The public representation of traditional medical practice has thus far been largely negative. The media report cases of quacks who have seen the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a business 
opportunity and take advantage of the desperation to seek a cure. Negative practices have a tragic impact on the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS, but this is only one side of 
the story. What are the experiences of traditional medical practitioners in treating their HIV positive patients, and what are their hopes and fears for the epidemic? How do they see 
their role in treating people suffering from a disease that biomedicine cannot yet cure either? Since they are often central to treatment of sexually-transmitted infections and privy 
to personal and confidential information about their clients, what can they teach us about the success or failure of safe sex campaigns? How is HIV/AIDS linked to ‘local’ 
explanations of sexually transmitted diseases that centre around transgressions of behaviour at key moments in the life cycle – birth, pregnancy, marriage and death? Finally, even 
some of the best-intentioned practitioners will see the pandemic as a business opportunity (as have international pharmaceutical companies) so how have individual practitioners 
or practitioner organizations rallied themselves to promote their medicine and expertise.

4. Experience of patients and traditional practitioners.
With the exception of those who have access to antiretroviral drugs, there is little that biomedicine can do for people with AIDS-related illnesses, especially in resource-poor 
countries. With this in mind, people will turn to traditional practitioners. What case histories of their experiences, both positive and negative, exist? How do individual practitioners 
gain a reputation amongst their clients? Where ARVs are available, how do they affect existing collaborations between the traditional and biomedical sectors? In resource-rich 
countries, people living with HIV/AIDS may approach alternative medicine as a means of coming to terms with their condition, and perhaps to help them combat the side-effects of 
the antiretroviral drug regimes. Accounts of their hopes and experiences would be welcome.


The workshop will be held in the Department of Anthropology and in association with the Centre for African Studies, SOAS, University of London. Please send an abstract to 
Rebecca Marsland ([log in to unmask]) by 31st December 2005.

Unfortunately funding of travel and expenses will be minimal. If funds are available, they will be distributed according to need, and will not cover the costs for everybody. In the 
meantime, those seeking support travelling from overseas could try the British Council (where appropriate) - otherwise your own institution may be able to help.
	

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