Word: moderners
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When Americans think about the problem of getting modern medical care to the people in Africa who need it most, Anthony Okello is not the solution that comes immediately to mind. He's a medicine man, apprenticed as a teenager to the wandering witch doctor who treated him for a fever that other doctors couldn't cure. When a patient goes to Okello complaining of rashes and diarrhea, as Lucy Ajam did recently, he recognizes the typical symptoms of AIDS for what they are. He immediately sent Ajam to the nearest hospital to start her on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs...
...contrast, there's a practicing medicine man for every 150 Ugandans, which is why traditional healers like Okello are playing an increasingly important role. "Traditional healers are in the neighborhood, and they're open 24 hours," says Dr. Dorothy Balaba, executive director of Traditional and Modern Health Practitioners Together Against AIDS (THETA), an aid group based in Kampala, Uganda's capital. For 80% of the Ugandan population, traditional healers represent the treatment of choice...
While Sekagya concedes that modern medicine is better at blood transfusions, rehydration and aligning compound fractures, he insists that traditional ways should not be dismissed simply because they are not understood. "A Western yardstick is the wrong yardstick to regulate traditional medicine," he says...
...also worried that expensive modern medicines may be smothering local knowledge, leaving the country dependent on foreign drugs and funding. "ARVs are not curing AIDS. They are improving the quality of life," Sekagya says. "Some traditional practices are doing the same. What attention are we giving to that? And if we come with ARVS and flood the whole system, will we lose those traditions...
...fortunate that our nation had a leader as magnificent as T.R. at such a crucial time--the start of the modern era. Sadly, we have not seen the likes of him since. I wonder which of our contemporaries, if any, will grace the cover of TIME 100 years from now. MAYR MALOOL Lake Placid...