Small News/Politics Graphic Economics a Boon to Traditional Medicine in Africa
From Natural Healthline by Peter Barry Chowka

Recent reports suggest traditional medicine is expanding in several parts of the African continent, propelled, as in the United States, by economics.

Rayner Ngonji, a correspondent for Africa Information Afrique, reports in a story from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on February 13 that business for traditional herbal healers is booming due to the economic crisis that has befallen the city's main hospital, the Muhimbili Medical Center. Since last October, all hospital services, including those of the operating theater, have been "paralyzed due to a lack of funds." The situation has deteriorated to the extent that patients are not provided with meals and women about to give birth are required to bring surgical gloves, sterilized cotton wool, syringes, bandages, and surgical blades if they expect to be attended, reports Ngonji.

As a result of the crisis, "business [for herbalists] is thriving," according to Sarai Kabera, a Maasi herbalist, one of thirty traditional healers operating in the city. Ngonji writes that "People are flocking to the makeshift [herbalist] clinics to seek traditional cures for hernia, asthma, stomach ulcers, and other diseases." Kabera makes an average of $25 (US) a day from treating ten people at her clinic.

Meanwhile, it takes a minimum of $233,000 per month to operate the city's hospital effectively, according to its director general, Professor Samwel Massele. "This year," Massele said, "we requested a budget of $24.2 million, but the government released only $8.6 million. Three quarters of this went towards salaries and allowances so we do not have adequate funds to run the hospital."

An attraction of the traditional healers is clearly the cost. The healers do not charge a fixed price and usually accept any amount of money a patient offers.

But among the local population, the traditional healers are also said to have a solid clinical reputation. The healers, for example, contend that heart problems are mostly caused by excessive fat in the body and treat them successfully with medicine made from acacia tree bark and roots. The acacia extraction controls fat intake in the body and also enables the blood circulation system to function well, claim the healers.

Farther down the continent, in South Africa, as the Los Angeles Times reports on February 22, "Medical Insurance Now Covers Herbs and Ancient Cures." Ever since democratic elections ended white rule in 1994, the African National Congress government of President Nelson Mandela has pledged to incorporate the estimated 200,000 traditional African healers into the country's conventional health care system. And now that integration is coming about.

In January, Thamba Administrators, Ltd., began acting as a broker for employers willing to allow workers to use traditional healers under medical insurance. "We see it as traditional healing working in conjunction with Western medicine," said Murray Tonathy, director of Thamba.

Traditional healers are registered in Thamba's computers. Workers who sign up for traditional medicine are issued coupons to use instead of cash when visiting an eligible healer. "Our main problem is 70-80 percent of providers of traditional medicine are functionally illiterate," Tonathy said.

The solution? A registered healer is given strips marked with a bar code to stick on patients' coupons in place of a signature. The coupons are mailed back to Thamba for computer scanning. Payment is then transferred to the healer's bank account.

According to the Times, this attempt to match computer technology with indigenous healing traditions has met with skepticism on the part of both the country's conventional physicians and many of the healers themselves. "There's no advantage" [to the new system], declared Solomon Mahlaba, who heads one of the 150 or so healers' associations. "I don't want to wait for my money, which may come or not."

Only Eskom, the national electric utility, has agreed to implement Thamba's traditional healers program so far.

Yet, the future for traditional medicine in South Africa would appear to be bright. The Times article mentions Victor Shabalala, who, it says, is like most South African blacks: "He sees a Western-style doctor for X-rays, immunizations, and broken bones, whereas for most ailments, physical or spiritual, he visits a traditional healer who relies on herbs, ancestors, and ancient folklore." It seems inevitable then that the country's official medical system (like those in the West) will continue to recognize the high utilization of traditional medicine among the population and make access to it easier.

For more information, please visit the MASA Media Scan,
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