Training Traditional Healers to refer suspected TB patients to the nearest clinic
| Dr. Malefetsane Liau, president of the traditional healers association, Lesotho. He explains how traditional healers have improved their response to TB patients |
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Dr. Malefetsane Liau in his office.
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Thousands of traditional healers are helping in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) in Lesotho. They have been trained to recognize TB symptoms such as a persistent cough and are aware of their responsibility to advise patients with suspected TB to get properly diagnosed.
In Lesotho, when people fall ill, it is customary for them to go to their traditional healer. Healers don’t have the equipment necessary to test for TB, neither are they medical practitioners. Instead of trying to treat a suspected TB patient using traditional medicine, healers are trained to refer them to the nearest TB clinic.
Traditional healers have experience in herbal and mystical remedies and they live by their trade of treating the community. Healers have a strong incentive to forego the revenue they would earn if they tried to treat the patient themselves, because they recognise that if clinical TB treatment is delayed, the disease can be fatal.
Nearly two thousand traditional healers who have undergone training know that referring a TB patient away to a clinic means they will come back to see them next time they have a lesser ailment. |
