Exploring Malaria in Ghana #3

On another day, I went to a meeting with a Professor of Public Health at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. We sat in his office and debriefed the purpose of my trip to Ghana and he helped me in organizing myself as far as where I still needed to visit for my exploration. 

During our conversation, we broke malaria treatment methods into 3 categories: orthodo/western treatments, home based/traditional treatments, and faith based healing. The orthodox method referred to doctors, nurses, and hospitals. The traditional remedies could be those that people make in their homes, or those that they can purchase from herbalist shops. Faith based healing refers to seeking the help of pastors or religious leaders for cures to ailments, rather than looking for medicine. He told me that some of his colleagues, who are medical professionals, often themselves seek out traditional healers when they are dissatisfied with their orthodox treatments. He spoke of a specific healer, who treated various injuries and broken bones. This man had no formal schooling, but gained his knowledge from information that was passed down over generations in his family. This man’s sister, similarly was involved in healing. While this professor preferred orthodox forms of treating illnesses, he doesn’t doubt the usefulness for others.

I asked for some of the traditional/homemade treatments that he’s come across for malaria. He told me that as a kid, his parents would boil the bark of the neem tree. He would put a towel over his head and the bucket containing his water in order to inhale the vapors. He told me that some people believe that frequent urination helps to hasten the disease process. So, they will mix kenkey and sugar together, and drink plenty of water afterwards. The usage of the neem tree for treating malaria came up again, except the professor had a different way of utilizing it. This made me curious about other possible variations people make of the neem tree for medicinal purposes. 

After leaving this meeting, I visited an herbalist. From my first day in Ghana, I frequently noticed herbalist stands along the road, with advertisements promising to cure a wide array of diseases. One billboard for an herbal center caught my eye in particular- it was very large, and boasted of having treatments for a wide array of diseases. I was struck that while it was an herbalist center, they also offered testing for STIs, malaria, and for liver functions. The images for the billboard displayed a meeting of traditional and orthodox science: a bottle of herbal mixture, a microscope, and an image of a person receiving bandages for an injury. 

At Masha Allah Herbal Shop, I spoke to the owner about treatments she would recommend to someone who came seeking help with malaria. She told me that she would first ask the customer about the symptoms they were suffering, which would lead her in the direction of the right product. She showed me a handful of different brands of herbal mixtures that treat malaria symptoms. I chose to purchase one of the malaria treatments because I was surprised at the ailments it claimed to cure: diabetes, blood pressure, typhoid fever, malaria, jaundice, liver problems, kidney problems, swollen legs, gonorrhea, waist pain, headache, stomach pains, bodily pains, rheumatism, itching, fibroid, menstrual cramps, and yeast infections. This is because these diseases stem from completely different things, some bacterial, fungal, some dealing with complicated issues of organ systems. Yet, only ingredients were listed on the bottle. 

The owner of the shop was trained by an herbal manufacturing company, where she spent 4 years learning to diagnose people of diseases and learning to prepare mixtures herself. She said this program was intensive. She told me that often, people will go to hospitals and be given treatments for certain issues, like back pain, that never seem to go away. When a specific patient came to her with such an issue, she asked them a series of questions, and realized that they had an untreated STI that led to their issues. Knowing this, she gave them the appropriate remedy. Personally, I was surprised, since I came into this conversation with preconceived notions that orthodox medicine was more effective than herbal treatments. 

During my time with my family, there were several times when I would give an aunt tylenol for bodily aches they had, and this filled a void of options they had. I observed my aunt give one of my cousins a drink of charcoal and water to treat her stomach pains. I was surprised at this, yet it worked. When I returned to Cambridge, i went to CVS for pepto bismol, and was surprised to see a box with activated charcoal tablets underneath the pepto bismol. My trip definitely opened my eyes to the effectiveness of traditional ways of treating ailments. Although I am still skeptical about my herbal mixture that boasts for cure 18 ailments. However, people continue to buy these remedies because there must be some truth to them, especially when they fill in the gaps that orthodox care leaves. 

The herbal mixture I purchased for 10 Cedis ($2) and brought home with me. An important observation that this is a cheap remedy that is accessible to many people.

The herbalist shop that I visited. 

Another malaria herbal mixture that I didn't end up purchasing.