On June 6, a group of deluded and dangerous people will meet to discuss how their brand of magic can heal the sick in developing countries. The Homeopathy for Developing Countries Conference in
Amersfoort, Netherlands will bring together quacks and misguided "healers" to immerse themselves in solipsistic self-congratulation whilst promoting a mysticism that could spell death for hundreds of the world's poorest people, if not more. They say:

Some homeopaths have even decided to permanently live in Africa or another region where medical help is scarce. These people do wonderful work because homeopathy, being cheap, safe and effective, is an ideal system of health for developing countries.

This homeopathy is not the antiquated feel-good therapy of the Islington soccer moms, it is a dangerous menace to the lives of people already suffering to an enormous degree. Alternative medicine is tolerated in the West because real, effective, evidence-based medicine is able to step in when the situation worsens. If anything, alt-med siphons off the worried well who would otherwise overburden doctors with their "bad circulation" or misaligned chakras.

In places like sub-Saharan Africa, however, the reality is far more grim. Deadly diseases such as malaria, TB, AIDS, influenza and infant diarrhoea exercise a frightening mortality. Giving placebos to these people will not work, and worse yet, it will prevent them seeking effective medicine. Spurred on by this tragedy in the making, the Voice of Young Science, a collection of PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, has written to Akpan Etukudo at the World Health Organisation, calling on the organisation to condemn the promotion of homeopathy as an effective medicine against these killer diseases:

Homeopathy does not protect people from, or treat, these diseases. Those of us working with the most rural and impoverished people of the world already struggle to deliver the medical help that is needed. When homeopathy stands in place of effective treatment, lives are lost.

Bad Science blogger Gimpy has extensive coverage on one of those named in the letter, Jeremy Sherr, a homeopath gambling with human lives as he trials and distributes homeopathic preparations in Tanzania.

Alternative medicine in the West has provided us with a constant source of amusement and occasional infuriation, but transplanted to the developing world, these homeopaths may prove as deadly as the diseases they claim to treat.

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