Harare — IT is now becoming clear that the parents of the teenage Ruwa boy suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy had rejected seeking competent medical help and instead destroyed the family, brought about their own deaths and almost destroyed their son through superstitious beliefs in witchcraft.

The boy has given evidence that his father, instead of seeking help, would induce seizures, in a misguided belief that these would help the family business. In the end, in the midst of one of these seizures, the boy fatally shot his father and mother.

Yet if the parents had sought medical help from a doctor, who probably would have referred the child to a psychiatrist or neurologist, he would have been properly diagnosed and put on treatment, which even in the private sector would have cost less than US$10 a month.

If belief in a traditional spirit world caused no harm, no one would seriously object.

Many might feel these beliefs were incorrect in light of later revelations or in light of post-enlightenment rational explanations, but freedom of religion would obstruct any moves except pure debate.

But it is also clear that there are some who believe that traditional magic rites will enhance their wealth and that most of these rites involve suffering or death to some innocent person.

Because of this suffering, and these murders, the State needs to step in more actively than it has.

Most cases of "possession" or other alterations of personality that tradition ascribes to witchcraft are, in fact, psychiatric disorders. This is why the Catholic Church, almost all Reformed Churches and many Evangelical churches no longer encourage or permit exorcism.

Instead they encourage the person, or his family, to seek modern medical help and ensure that epilepsy, a psychotic disorder or a psychological problem is correctly diagnosed and treated.

And so much can now be done to help those who need this medical care. Already the second generation of anti-epileptic drugs are off patent and cheap generics are readily available.

The first generation of anti-psychotic drugs are also off patent, and very cheap, and the cost of the second generation of anti-psychotics is a small fraction of the cost of a few years ago as licensed generics are now available in the developing world.

So almost everyone who has one of these neurological or psychiatric disorders can obtain effective help for the chronic illness and lead a near normal life by just taking a pill or two every day.

The law allows the State to take these people into care and to ensure that they receive effective help. If families are supportive in-hospital care is very short and almost all patients can now be released very soon after starting treatment and just be out-patients. The days when so many with serious psychiatric disorders had to be permanently hospitalised are over, ended by modern pharmacy.

But we still have too many families trying to hide these illnesses, or seeking inadequate treatment from n'angas who have no knowledge of modern neurology and psychiatry, or even as in the case of the Ruwa family trying to use the illness in a superstitious attempt to make money.

If other members of his family, or his teachers at school -- who must have seen something was wrong -- had taken action the tragedy would never have happened.

The parents would still be alive, the boy would be continuing his education and preparing for a normal and productive life.

A belief in magic does nothing for the believer, and can cause harm to others. Most Zimbabweans are now Christians, and Christian theology is quite dismissive of magic. The greatest African theologian in history, Augustine of Hippo, went as far as dismissing such a belief as heresy, since the believer was denying the omnipotence of God.

Churches can and should perhaps stress the need to seek medical help where this is required while offering their own services where purely psychological counseling will be beneficial.

Zinatha should encourage its own members to refer psychiatric illness to specialist doctors, just as it encourages them to refer many physical complaints to other specialists.

But what is needed, above all, is a proper educational campaign to teach people that epilepsy and psychiatric illnesses are no different from other chronic illnesses, and can be brought under control and kept under control.

It is wrong that those who have the misfortune to suffer from these illnesses should be denied, in the 21st century when so much can be done to help them, the help that is standard in the developed world and in many developing countries.

Even the most ardent traditionalist would, for example, insist on going to hospital if they had a broken leg rather than seek traditional medical treatment and the same view should be held of all illnesses, especially serious ones.