The investigator reasons that if the traditional medicine prove effective, therapy will be more accessible to everyone because of availability and cost. Adult patients admitted or seen on an outpatient basis with a history of dysentery will be randomly assigned to one of the treatment groups after a rectal swab has been taken for a bacteriological diagnosis. The investigator notes that would be next to impossible to define all the ingredients of this traditional medicine and if done would be a costly undertaking. Besides, he argues, it is the interaction of the different ingredients that probably are the reason for he drug's reported effectiveness. Comment on the ethics of this study.
Cases are fictional, but based on real events.
All organization and individual names have been changed.