BACKGROUND Traditional health practitioners (THPs) play a vital role in the health care of the majority of the South African population and elsewhere on the African continent. However, many studies have challenged the role of THPs in health care. Concerns raised in the literature include the rationale, safety and effectiveness of traditional health practices and methods, as well as what informs...

OBJECTIVES To describe health seeking and sexual behaviour including condom use among patients presenting with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and, to identify sociodemographic and behavioural risk factors associated with "no condom use" during the symptomatic period. METHODS A cross sectional study of consecutive new STI cases presenting at the district STI clinic in Thyolo, Malawi. T...

The present communication deals with the ethno-botanical exploration, identification of some plants formerly Asclepiadaceae that are treated as subfamily Asclepiadoideae, milkweed family Apocynaceae (order Gentianales) per APG III system classification. this being used frequently by rural people Bankura. During investigation, a total 14 species Asclepiadoideae have been reportedthey were local ...

BACKGROUND Child vaccination is one of the public health interventions that are responsible for the relatively low child morbidity and mortality in developed nations compared to the developing world. We carried out this study to examine the association between mothers' use of traditional healer services and vaccination among Haitian children. Our hypothesis was that children whose mothers used ...

BACKGROUND Alternative and traditional healing methods are common and popular in Sudan, particularly for treating people with mental disorders, but little information is available about the outcome of theses traditional healing approaches. OBJECTIVES To study the outcome of treating patients with psychotic disorders by traditional healers, and to understand the type of services, interventions...

OBJECTIVE The study aimed to investigate the types of mental illnesses treated by traditional healers, and their methods of identifying and treating mental illnesses in their patients. METHOD In urban informal settlements of Kibera, Kangemi and Kawangware in Nairobi, Kenya, we used opportunistic sampling until the required number of traditional healers was reached, trying as much as possible ...