Traditional medicine (TM) in Bulamogi (Uganda) is holistic, providing treatments for physical illnesses as well as psycho-spiritual ones. People use it to prevent and eliminate the effects of witchcraft, to appease spirits and to cure chronic illnesses. The traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs) are numerous and have extensive experience of traditional healing.
Communication between patients and physicians about herbal medicine is valuable, enabling physicians to address issues of potential herb-drug interactions and ensuring appropriate medical care.
Cultures all over the world have evolved illness representations that can accommodate not only new diseases, but also new epistemologies for explaining disease. This paper examines illness representations in Sub-Saharan Africa, and how these have responded to the emergence of AIDS.
Throughout the developing world, resource-poor farmers (about 1.4 billion people) located in risk-prone, marginal environments, remain untouched by modern agricultural technology.
In the UK there may be up to 15 000 avoidable deaths from cancer every year in people over the age of 75 years. A study presented last week at the National Cancer Intelligence Network annual conference highlights the disparity in cancer mortality rates between the UK and 11 European countries and the USA.
This review is the second in a series on Indigenous health, covering different regions and issues. We look briefly at the current state of Indigenous health in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region with over 400 different indigenous groups and a total population of 45 to 48 million people.
Ethnopharmacological relevance: Neem (Azadirachta indica; Meliaceae) is widely known for its cold pressed seed oil, mainly used as insecticide, but also for cosmetic, medicinal and agricultural uses.
: Many species of the Caatinga flora are used as medicines in local communities. In recent decades, the knowledge and use of these species has been expanding within this region.
Indigenous uses of Azadirachta indica A. juss (Maliaceae) (locally known as neem) leaves in different parts of India for curing gastrointestinal disorder such as diarrhea and cholera is wide spread.
Sub-Saharan Africa is facing a crisis in human health resources due to a critical shortage of health workers. The shortage is compounded by a high burden of infectious diseases; emigration of trained professionals; difficult working conditions and low motivation.