Executive Summary Traditional healers have a crucial role to play in building the health system in South Africa and strengthening and supporting the national response to HIV/AIDS. This paper sketches a background to traditional healing in South Africa and discusses international policies, guidelines and the South African legal framework on traditional health practitioners. It argues for the reg...

The aim of this study is to see how healers are initiated in Ethiopia. The paper also describes the position of traditional healers in the current situation of Ethiopia. It is found out that most of spiritual healers believed that they are selected by divine power or spirit. The selections are manifested by a single or a combination of ways namely: through dream, escaping mortal accident, and m...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has the noble goals of advancing traditional medicine and simultaneously promoting the regulation and professionalization of traditional healers. However, such regulation has the unintended consequence of withholding power from traditional practitioners. This review explores this concept through a historical analysis of traditional medicine in both India and ...

Orphans are an increasing problem in developing countries particularly in Africa; due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; and needs collective effort in intervention processes by including all stakeholders right from the grass roots level. This paper attempts to present the role of traditional healers in psychosocial support for orphan children in Dar-es-Salaam City with special focus on those whose pare...

Some reorientation is required, and the first step should be for health professionals to delineate the boundaries of "health". Professionals should work to convince the public that the right approach is that of positive health. The use of the word "health" in a negative sense should be avoided in both professional and official circles, so that the public's perceptions are less influenced by fai...

BACKGROUND Snakebite is a major public health problem in many developing countries. Farmers are particularly exposed to snakes, and due to their rural location often experience delays in accessing formal healthcare. The reasons to use traditional healers may include difficulties in accessing formal healthcare, certain beliefs about snakes and snake venom, tradition, and trust in the capacity of...

in recent years, some in the West have begun to recognize traditional chinese medicine (tcM) as a potential source of new drug candidates (corson & crews, 2007; Efferth et al, 2007; Li & zhang, 2008; Schmidt et al, 2007). at the same time, the practice of tcM in Western countries has been increasing (institute of Medicine, 2005). as tcM is usually thought to have evolved independently of Wester...

Traditional healing is a common practice in low and middle income countries such as Malaysia. Eighty percent of Malaysians consult traditional healers or "bomoh" at some time in their life for health-related issues. The purpose of our study was to explore why breast cancer patients visit traditional healers. This is a qualitative study utilizing in-depth interviews with 11 cancer survivors who ...

HIV/AIDS is a major public health problem in many countries particularly those of sub-Saharan Africa (NACP, 2002). Like in most other resourcepoor countries, Tanzania lacks well-established care for the patients, such as provision of antiretrovirals and drugs for the treatment of opportunistic infections. Hence in sub-Saharan Africa, by implication, traditional healers treat and manage a large ...