It started a few weeks ago when I flew a doctor and 4 of his patients in the remote Sonjo Valley, northern Tanzania. I hadn’t heard of the breaking news before that flight: there was a healer, a holy man out there capable of curing many diseases, including Aids! Indeed breaking news….
The doctor, involved in HIV cases in an hospital in Arusha, sees patients leaving his care for that healer’s treatment, hears about the growing rumors, is doubtful about that remedy efficiency. On the other side Flying Medical Service starts to receive phone calls to charter the planes to get there. Such flights, expensive and time consuming, can’t be agreed on. That healer can’t be taken seriously just by looking at the basic facts. He is old, has no medical training, gives the same herb and root soup to any patient, doesn’t even have a look a their medical files, and last but not least, had a dream in which god or angels whispered the recipe to him!
But this case is similar to any sect on the rise in the world, despite flagrant proofs that one guide is wrong and keeps on getting wrong on the doomsday date, many keep on running to his arms. To understand why blinkered Tanzanian people flock out there, their own president and some of his cronies went to meet and drink that magical potion, boosting that local Joan of Arc’s credentials.
So the idea behind the flight was to bring a doctor with 4 of his long term patients, get them to drink the soup, and follow up their progress if any by comparing previous and future data. 2 passengers were sick with Aids, the other 2 with diabetes. In some weeks or so, the doctor will be able to draw conclusions, official and scientific conclusions. But anyway trying to convince the masses will look like a 13th job for Hercules. People want to believe the man’s claims so much that they lose all common sense. I get people asking me details about flights, I try to explain the whereabouts of this situation, and I know I’m losing the argument. Their eyes are shiny with hope, they hardly listen to the end of my sentences, they’ve heard of cases with positive results. But mostly, I know this is going to be a difficult situation to fight because 2 persons gave me names of HIV patients, their sister for instance, and that gives away how efficient that remedy is considered: no need to be ashamed, no more secret, no more stigma anymore since the cure is close.
Yes they’ve heard of HIV people getting better…that was because they had stopped their heavy treatments for HIV, so initially people would indeed feel better since the side effects disappear, before the disease soon kicks in for good. A friend of mine works in a good hospital in Arusha. Her records show 17 patients died recently, including babies, because treatments were interrupted, replaced by that herb concoction. And those 17 represent only one example.
One disaster rarely comes alone: 1000’s of jeeps filled in like eggs go to Samunge everyday, dubbed the new Mecca of Africa, a few hundreds km away. Mostly bad roads in the remote savannah where only mud and branch huts are to be found means no hotel, no restaurant, no facilities. Flying toilets and awful traffic jams are the norm. Flying toilets? Take a shit in a plastic bag, tie a knot and throw away. “Class” and very common including in Arusha slums.
Hygiene could be an issue too as we’ve seen pictures of the cauldrons boiling over and over with the dubious mixture, in the open, surrounded by dust and people…
Businesses are on the rise in Arusha, jeeps and drivers to rent, new schedules on aircraft…many expatriates here start to worry when their staff ask for a few days off. Karine and I will need to talk to our staff just in case and hope for the best.
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=26960 for those who want some local piece of interviews
