Communities’ views on prerequisites for collaboration between modern and traditional health sectors in relation to STI/HIV/AIDS care in Zambia

Are biomedicine health practitioners ready to collaborate with traditional health practitioners in HIV & AIDS care in Tutume sub district of Botswana

“…This is despite the government of Botswana's policy initiatives, strategy and processes for collaboration between the two disciplines. Collaboration between BHPs and THPs was also documented to be low in a study conducted with THPs and BHPs in Zambia, where only 24 % of BHPs reported having contacts with the THPs six months prior to the study (Kaboru et al, 2006b). In Botswana the basis of collaboration between BHPs and THPs is the 1995 health policy on collaboration with traditional medicine practitioners, nevertheless the policy does not specify when and how often the two sides should meet, leaving the responsibility to initiate and facilitate meetings and workshops to the biomedical institutions.…”

“…According to Kaboru et al (2006b), BHPs in favour of collaboration were of the opinion that collaboration is possible only if it is well designed, while acknowledging that collaboration with THPs is not easy but require nurturing of the process (Kayombo et al, 2007;Kaboru et al, 2006a). One of the key elements recommended for successful collaboration is building mutual respect between BHPs and THPs through dialogue, consistent exchange of information and eagerness to learn from one another (King, 2005).…”

“…The results show that the most common reasons for not referring to THPs were concerns with toxicities, morbidities and mortalities resulting from traditional medicines. Kaboru, et al (2006b) reported various reasons for poor referral between BHPs and THPs; most of the reasons documented were associated with lack of belief in THPs, in addition lack of referral guidelines was also reported as a reason for not referring to THPs. While lack of referral guidelines was not mentioned as a reason for not referring to THPs in this study, it might be a barrier to collaboration, given the lack of specific guidelines on collaboration in the country.…”

“…This is in contrast with other African countries like South Africa (Pinkoane, 2008 (Kayombo et al, 2007) were reviews on collaborative were conducted with BHPs Lack of documentation of collaboration attempts appear to be a general problem for most sub-saharan countries, according to Kaboru et al (2006a), there is lack of systematic description of the experiences of and attitudes towards collaboration among THPs and BHPs. There is also a general consensus among researchers that where documentation on collaboration occur, studies often describe and document THPs eagerness to collaborate with and learn from BHPs while the BHPs' views are left out (Kaboru et al, 2006b;UNAIDS, 2000UNAIDS, , 2006. The aim of this study was to determine BHPs' views on collaboration with THPs in Tutume sub district.…”

Public Perceptions of the Role of Traditional Medicine in the Health Care Delivery System in Ghana

“…The efficacy and potency of TM are indeed attracting global attention (Peltzer and Mngqundaniso, 2008;Mwangi, 2004;Buor, 1993) and that traditional, complementary and alternative medicine is globally increasing in popularity (Kaboru et al, 2006). The global trend indicates that even in the advanced countries, more people with the most advanced and sophisticated OM system are making headway in TM use to cater for their health care requirements (WHO, 2001).…”