Trends and challenges towards integration of traditional medicine in formal health care system: Historical perspectives and An Appraisal of education curricula in Sub-Sahara Africa

Innocent, Ester

doi:10.5455/jice.20160421125217

Cited by 29 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Since the antique time plants have been an essential supply for deterrent and healing for humans and livestock [ 2 ]. The population living in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to suffer from infectious as well as noninfectious and deficiency diseases [ 3 ]. Because of these and other problems, a large number of people of Africa die daily of preventable and curable diseases due to the lack of simple primary health care [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because of this, human beings use different plant species known in ancient traditional medicine instead. Traditional medicine has been applied by humans for the healing of different diseases since a long time before the beginning of conventional medicine and up to this time serve the health care needs of the majority of the people of Africa [ 3 , 5 – 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in Ganta Afeshum District, Eastern Zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Kidane

Gebremedhin

Tadesse

2018

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundStarting from the ancient time, the people of Ethiopia use medicinal plants as traditional medicine to heal different human and livestock ailments. This ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants was carried out in Ganta Afeshum District, Eastern Zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, to identify medicinal plant species used by the local community to treat various human and livestock ailments.MethodsA total of 78 informants (54 men and 24 women) were selected to collect ethnobotanical information from four study sites. Among the 78 informants, 20 key informants were selected purposefully; the other 58 informants were selected randomly by lottery method. Ethnobotanical data were collected using semi-structured interviews, field observations, guided field walks, and group discussions and were analyzed by preference ranking, paired comparison, direct matrix ranking, informant consensus factor, fidelity level (FL), use-value, independent samples t test, and Pearson correlation coefficients.ResultsA total of 173 medicinal plants were collected and identified that were distributed across 77 families and 156 genera. The family Fabaceae stood first by contributing 17 (9.8%) species followed by Lamiaceae and Solanaceae with 9 (5.2%) species each. Rhamnus prinoides was reported for the treatment of many of the described diseases. One hundred sixteen (67.1%) medicinal plant species were collected from natural vegetation, 34 (19.7) were from home gardens, 13 (7.5%) from farmland, and 10 (5.8%) were from natural vegetation and home gardens. The most widely used life form was herbs (69 species, 39.9%) followed by shrubs (58 species, 33.5%). The most commonly used part of the medicinal plants was the leaves followed by roots. The plants were prepared by grinding, powdering, squeezing, roasting, and burning and were administered through oral, dermal, nasal, anal, ocular, and vaginal, and on the surface of the teeth. The most commonly used applications were by drinking, smearing, eating, fumigation, and chewing. There was no difference between men and women informants, showing that the two sexes had similar knowledge in the use of traditional medicinal plants. Educational level and medicinal plant knowledge of informants were negatively correlated; whereas age and medicinal plant knowledge of informants were positively correlated.ConclusionsGanta Afeshum District is relatively rich in diversity of medicinal plant resources accompanied with a rich indigenous knowledge within the local communities to harvest and effectively use to prevent different human and livestock ailments. However, nowadays, deforestation, agricultural expansion, overgrazing, drought, and overexploitation are threatening these properties. Therefore, people of the study area should apply complementary conservation approaches (in situ and ex situ) for sustainable use of these resources and to prevent species extinction.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13002-018-0266-z) contains supplementary material, which is ava...

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in Ganta Afeshum District, Eastern Zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Kidane

Gebremedhin

Tadesse

2018

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[22][23][24][25] Ghana, for example, identifies TM experts in the medical curriculum as repositories of indigenous medical knowledge with much to teach health professionals, but SA has no such policy. [26] Chitindingu et al [1] provided important groundwork by evaluating the inadequacies of the formal medical curriculum relating to TM. Research also demonstrates that the hidden curriculum is often the major force in shaping physicians' professional identity.…”

Section: Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving South African medical curricula related to traditional health systems

Lawrence

Bollinger

Stewart

et al. 2021

AJHPE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An unexamined educationSouth African (SA) medical curricula on traditional health systems remain a largely unexamined topic, despite millions of South Africans using traditional healthcare daily. Chitindingu et al. 's [1] 2014 study outlined the major formal elements of the traditional healing curricula, as described by administrators at each of SA's eight medical schools. Our study aims to answer their call for better understanding of this topic from the perspective of medical students' experience of the curricula -not that of the administrators. Specifically, our study objectives were to determine the hidden curriculum surrounding traditional medicine (TM) in SA medical schools, and how students describe the impact of this hidden curriculum on their perceptions of TM. We define the hidden curriculum as an interpersonal/social concept and a contextual/cultural concept, based on student descriptions of interactions and cultural norms experienced during medical training. [2] Finally, we provide recommendations to mitigate the hidden curriculum's harmful effects, while promoting its more positive aspects. Broad efforts at integrationGlobally, the use of TM is widespread. [3] In SA, TM use is increasingly recognised as an essential element of and opportunity to improve the health of the nation. [4][5][6] Traditional health practitioners (THPs) have various roles in the healthcare system outside of healing, including spiritual protectors, counsellors and cultural repositories. [5,7] Furthermore, THPs represent an area of under-utilised potential in the fight against HIV/AIDS, particularly due to their overwhelming willingness to engage in HIV/AIDS training and refer patients to biomedical facilities when necessary. [6,8] Discouragingly, however, the tension between biomedicine and TM, largely due to historical injustices, gaps in scientific evidence and mistrust, has resulted in a fragmented and inefficient health system. [6,9,10] Medical schools provide a prime location to combat these challenges, ideally fostering understanding and integration of the two health systems. [1,11] A recent study in Uganda argued that training medical students in the principles of TM was feasible and may improve health outcomes; therefore, integration should not be delayed. [12] Curricular reformsHealth professions education systems in SA, due to their roots in imperialism, colonialism and apartheid, often produce providers who are incompletely equipped to properly care for many patients, specifically the black African population. [13] Recognition of this deficit has led to a movement to decolonise the nation's graduate education system, including medical schools. [13] Our research aims to look at how we can progress towards decolonisation via integration of traditional health education in medical schools. Although Background. Increased co-ordination and co-operation between traditional and biomedical health systems in South Africa (SA) is a national priority. To improve care, practitioners in both systems must learn to recognise th...

show abstract

“…The assumption that African traditional medicine is the oldest therapeutic system comparatively to other health care systems has been advanced by some authors (Mahomoodally, 2013;Agbor and Naidoo, 2016). "African traditional medicine" is related to a set of "all practices, measures, ingredients, and procedures of all kind whether material or not which guard against disease/illness to alleviate suffering and cure himself" (Innocent, 2016). As a result, treatment in African traditional medicine uses a holistic approach which include divination, spiritualism and herbalism (Innocent, 2016;Ozioma and Chinwe, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaboration between practitioners of traditional and conventional medicine: A report of an intervention carried out with traditional women healers in the province of Sanmatenga (Burkina Faso) to improve the obtaining of the license to practice traditional medicine

Rainatou¹,

Compaoré²,

Salfo³

et al. 2021

Int. NGOJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Traditional medicine (TM) is an important source of care for most poor people. Aware of this role, most African countries have developed national policies to give legal status to TM and its practitioners. Currently, at least 30,000 people practice TM in Burkina Faso. However, few, particularly women, have licenses to practice TM. This paper presents the results of a pilot project that aimed at accompanying the traditional women healers from Sanmatenga province in obtaining licenses. The application for TM practice includes personal attested documents and ethnomedical evidence or proof of efficacy of the traditional product. To assess the ethnomedical evidence, the traditional healer is monitored by a nurse over a four-month period during which the nurse follows patients receiving the traditional treatment. The nurse investigates the work of the traditional healer and its final report includes its opinion on the traditional healer and the number of patients followed, cured or lost after treatment with the traditional product. Perceptions of different stakeholders regarding the intervention were obtained through unstructured interviews. 60 traditional women healers were selected from three health districts of the province of Sanmatenga. They were followed by 10 nurses. Currently, about 37% of traditional women healers are licensed. Findings showed that the different stakeholders welcomed the intervention and made recommendations to strengthen this relationship. Thus, strengthening the capacities of traditional healers as well as the collaboration with conventional medicine practitioners contribute to build stronger healthcare systems.

show abstract

Trends and challenges towards integration of traditional medicine in formal health care system: Historical perspectives and An Appraisal of education curricula in Sub-Sahara Africa

Cited by 29 publications

References 16 publications

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in Ganta Afeshum District, Eastern Zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in Ganta Afeshum District, Eastern Zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Improving South African medical curricula related to traditional health systems

Collaboration between practitioners of traditional and conventional medicine: A report of an intervention carried out with traditional women healers in the province of Sanmatenga (Burkina Faso) to improve the obtaining of the license to practice traditional medicine

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About