Reconciling the Irreconcilable: Integrating Traditional Healers and Biomedical Science in HIV Cure Research
Malcolm de Roubaix In contemporary biomedical and philosophical discourse, traditional African culture has been largely usurped by Western colonial influence. Traditional culture, however, may still have a significant influence on the thinking and actions of many Africans. The question is whether … Read more
Pluralistic Perspectives on HIV Cure in Africa: How Will Research Participants Interpret the C-word?
Keymanthri Moodley Background: Africa has a rich and contentious history of HIV cure approaches that range from mythology, cultural beliefs and religion to alternate and traditional medications. This history is set against a backdrop of political ideology, claims of post-colonialism, … Read more
A TCM cure for malaria, a Nobel Prize, and an HIV cure
By Qingyan Ma, PhD October 5, 2015 was a remarkable day in the history of science in China. That day, a female Chinese researcher, Youyou Tu, was announced as one of the winners for the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology … Read more
A Sociocultural Reading of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China and HIV Cure
By Qingyan Ma The Naming The term Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is not commonly used in China but rather is primarily used in deference to English-language scholarly convention (White 1999). As a matter of fact, Chinese medicine or zhongyi (中医) … Read more
Traditional Healers in South African Healthcare
By Malcolm De Roubaix Traditional healers (THs) remain significant in the South African healthcare delivery model. On the one hand, THs form an integral link in traditional African conceptions of community, self, personhood, disease, cure and treatment. THs (isangomas) interact … Read more