Alcohol remains popular treatment for illnesses in Kenya

Nairobi - Beer for measles or labour pains and even
stronger beverages for a simple case of flu: The belief in
alcohol-based home remedies remains strong in Kenya,
but medical authorities warn that they may do more harm
than good.
If her two young sons were to get the measles tomorrow,
Margaret Muchori - a registered nurse with more than
10 years experience - would treat them by bathing them
in beer.
"You do it in the morning and evening," Muchori says.
"My mother told me she did it for about five days and
[the reaches) cleared.
The middle-aged woman goes for regular checkups with
her family doctor and updates her vaccines, but in the
case of measles, she says she would turn to muratina, a
type of beer made by her Kikuyu ethnic group from a
local fruit of the same name.
A 2012 study published by the African Journal of
Pharmacology and Therapeutics says that traditional
medicine using herbs and alcohol is still widely practiced
in Kenya, and according to Muchori, every tribe has its
own traditional remedies.
More harmful than therapeutic
But some of the alcohol-based home treatments may be
more harmful than therapeutic.
A potent alcoholic drink known as chang'aa - distilled
from millet, maize and sorghum - is sometimes used to
treat malaria, flu, parasites and typhoid in Kenya.
Chang'aa - a name that means "kill me quick" in Swahili
- contains methyl alcohol, which can cause blindness and
even death when consumed in large quantities.
The risks do not deter Jane Odinga, a grandmother
living in the Kibera slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. She
says she recently gave chang'aa to her 9-month-old
granddaughter to cure a stubborn case of the flu.
"A long time ago there were no hospitals, so one of the
things used as medicine was alcohol," says Odinga.
Other alcohol-based treatments include drinking beer
while pregnant, which is believed to reduce labour pains.
Moderate alcohol consumption has been long thought to
have health benefits, including reduced risk of heart
disease and stroke, according to a 2011 study based on
medical literature by Harvard Medical School and two
other research institutes.
Highest alcohol consumption
But alcohol, a central nervous system depressant, can
impair brain function in the short term and weaken the
immune system in the long term, according to the US
National Institute of Alcohol Abuse.
Rather than curing an ailment, alcohol may only relieve
symptoms by helping the patient feel them less acutely,
says doctor Harrison Kiambati, a senior official with
Kenya's ministry of medical Services.
Suppressing the symptoms can be harmful because it gives
the patient time to develop complications, Kiambati added.
Acording to Kenya's National Authority for the
Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada),
alcohol is the most commonly abused substance in the
country, posing a risks to the population through excessive
consumption and the adulteration of illicit brews.
Though urban Kenyans use alcohol at a higher rate than
those who live in rural areas, the Nacada reports that
traditional liquor - chang'aa in particular - is still more
likely to have been consumed by rural children than urban
children.
Kenya's highest alcohol consumption has been reported in
Nairobi, where nearly 16% of residents admit to drinking
a packaged or legal form alcohol within the last month.
According to the Nacada, chang'aa is consumed by
roughly 7.2% of Nairobi residents on a regular basis.
Alcohol treatments
There is no information available on how much alcohol
use in Kenya is related to treating medical ailments,
although Nacada has said that nearly half of respondents
in a 2010 survey cited poverty as the reason for drinking.
Kiambati, the ministry official, said he was not aware of
alcohol treatments having caused deaths, but added that
such treatments were poorly documented.
"As a medical doctor, I would not prescribe something
that has not been proven or researched scientifically,"
Kiambati said.
Many Kenyans ignore such warnings and continue using
traditional remedies, which are cheaper and require no
travel to medical centres that can be far away, according
to the African Journal of Pharmacology and
Therapeutics.
Muchori admits that while she was pregnant, she was
tempted to try beer as a remedy for labour pain.
"I nearly took Guinness," she says. "But anything you
consume without scientific proof is not good."
- SAPA