[Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/cervical-cancer-77-role-traditional-hea... ]
Thanks Neil, for highlighting my comment on the role of traditional healers.
It is a well-known fact in LMICs that people (women) rely on the knowledge and healing power of traditional healers (TH).
The reasons could be they are closer to the community (live close to the homes/villages and women feel confident to confide about embarrassing health issues), have long time to listen to the ailments and cost less, communicate in a simple language the solutions to the medical problem and above all the community does not have access to reliable healthcare knowledge.
However, these TH often are not part of the health system and therefore, rarely updated with evidence-based scientific healthcare knowledge.
Thus, more and more health programs are working to include education of TH in their policies and plans (e.g. immunisation).
Best wishes
Dr. Meena Nathan Cherian, MBBS, MD (Anaesthesia)
(Former WHO Lead Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program, Geneva, Switzerland).
Director, Global Health New Challenges: Geneva Foundation for Medical Education & Research, Switzerland. <http://www.gfmer.ch/surgery/cancer.htm> www.gfmer.ch/surgery/cancer.htm (NSA-WHO)
Senior Advisor Global Action International Society of Geriatric Oncology Permanent Committees - SIOG <https://siog.org/about-us/governance/leadership/permanent-committees/>
Senior Advisor, International College of Surgeons-Global Affairs. <https://icsglobal.org/> https://icsglobal.org/ (NSA-WHO)
Adjunct Prof.The Chinese University of Hong Kong,Shenzhen,China. <https://med.cuhk.edu.cn/en/teacher/371> https://med.cuhk.edu.cn/en/teacher/371
WHO-HIFA Essential Health Services; mHEALTH-INNOVATE. <http://www.hifa.org/> www.hifa.org (NSA-WHO).
Geneva, Switzerland. <mailto:+41%20763837253> +41 763837253(m); <mailto:cherianm15@gmail.com> cherianm15@gmail.com
HIFA profile: Dr Meena Nathan Cherian was a professor of anaesthesiology from Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India. She trained, worked, and taught in several countries, USA (Johns Hopkins Hospital), Southeast Asia and Africa. She worked at the World Health Organization Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, as the Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program Lead where she created the ‘surgical care’ program resulting in the first World Health Assembly Resolution on ‘Emergency and Essential Surgical Care and Anaesthesia in the context of Universal Health Coverage’. Currently she works as the Director, Global Health New Challenges program, Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Geneva, Switzerland; Adjunct Prof. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China; Senior Advisor, Global Action, International Society of Geriatric Oncology, Switzerland; Member of the WHO-HIFA Working Group on Essential Health Services and COVID-19; and HIFA mHEALTH-INNOVATE Working Group. She is a member of the HIFA Steering Group. https://www.hifa.org/support/members/meena and Spotlight working group on Patient Safety and NCDs. cherianm15 AT gmail.com