Alternative medicine

The African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative medicines (AJT-CAM), a new broad-based journal, is founded on two key tenets: To publish exciting research in all areas of applied medicinal plants, Traditional medicines, Complementary Alternative Medicines, food and agricultural technologies, and promotion of healthy use of medicinal products. Secondly, to provide the most rapid turn-around time possible for reviewing and publishing, and to disseminate the articles freely for teaching and reference purposes. All articles published in AJE are peer-reviewed.

Got a cure for AIDS? Maybe you're convinced that large doses of vitamins can do the trick or that you have found the answer scores of scientists over the last 25 years could not. If you live in South Africa there is little to prevent you from packaging your wonder product in an old coke bottle or a fancy pill container, depending on your means, and selling it for whatever price you can get.

An illegal medicines industry is rocketing out of control as unregistered products - many claiming to cure diseases such as cancer, TB and AIDS - are sold across the counter or on the streets.

The complementary medicine industry is embarking on a strict crackdown to try to stamp out the cowboys giving their business a bad name. The Health Products Association admits freely that a gap in the legislation governing the burgeoning complementary medicines industry has left an opening for people intent on making money, without the science to back up their claims.

When Luckner Pierrsaint feels congested from the flu or bronchitis, he doesn't go to a doctor or a drugstore. He takes his own concoction: a spoonful of a sugar-and-purple-onion mixture left outside for three nights.

A Ugandan drug trial's findings that the AIDS medication nevirapine is effective and safe in preventing HIV transmission from mother to unborn child during birth were well-supported, according to a new, independent analysis by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies

A sound ethical framework for research in developing countries is crucial for ensuring that participants are safe from exploitation, says a report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), only a small proportion of the money spent on studying the health problems of the developing world goes on improving the effectiveness of health delivery systems. The imbalance is a distorted reflection of real needs.

In a world of instant gratification and the search for super health and the ideal body, many consumers have been duped into buying miracle cures that promise fantastic results with no scientific backing.

Adverse drug reactions to alternative medicines have more than doubled in three years.