Quacks selling medicine to patients
29 June 2009, 19:04
By Sonya Bell
Sales of unregistered medicines to HIV patients are being conducted by medical professionals themselves, according to academics, activists and medical practitioners across the country.
"This is indeed a problem and I think it is very widespread - health workers of all types are not only selling to health care centres and hospices, but also selling individually to patients," said Professor Anna Coutsoudis from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
"These 'quacks' are abusing patients in an effort to make money and are causing havoc. The government needs to step in," she said.
Nuzuko Majola, the deputy director of the Aids Foundation of South Africa, says numerous organisations have reported hearing of medical professionals coaching patients to take vitamins or herbal remedies as an alternative to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.
She said it has been going on for "a long time".
"You find that even nurses in the hospitals and clinics, if you test positive, they'll recommend vitamins and herbal medicines," Majola said.
"Nurses at the clinics are saying: 'If you want something to help, I'm selling,' or 'Go see so-and-so.'"
But the practice is going unreported, with few people on the ground believing they have the evidence to make a complaint.
Read the full story in today's editions of Cape Times newspaper.
Sales of unregistered medicines to HIV patients are being conducted by medical professionals themselves, according to academics, activists and medical practitioners across the country.
"This is indeed a problem and I think it is very widespread - health workers of all types are not only selling to health care centres and hospices, but also selling individually to patients," said Professor Anna Coutsoudis from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
"These 'quacks' are abusing patients in an effort to make money and are causing havoc. The government needs to step in," she said.
Nuzuko Majola, the deputy director of the Aids Foundation of South Africa, says numerous organisations have reported hearing of medical professionals coaching patients to take vitamins or herbal remedies as an alternative to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.
She said it has been going on for "a long time".
"You find that even nurses in the hospitals and clinics, if you test positive, they'll recommend vitamins and herbal medicines," Majola said.
"Nurses at the clinics are saying: 'If you want something to help, I'm selling,' or 'Go see so-and-so.'"
But the practice is going unreported, with few people on the ground believing they have the evidence to make a complaint.
Cape Town
