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The role of traditional healers in the fight against AIDS in Africa.

The enormity of the AIDS problem forced authorities throughout Africa to explore the role of traditional healers in the fight against the disease during the first International Conference on Traditional Medicine and HIV/AIDS held in March 1999 in Dakar. The conference emphasized the appropriate and specific roles that traditional practitioners can play in developing and implementing an effective health policy particularly in the fight against AIDS and AIDS-related opportunistic infections. The conference primarily assessed the economic and political realities of the AIDS pandemic. The empowerment of women to take control over their own sexuality was seen as vital in the fight against AIDS and the supportive role of healers in information education and communication was acknowledged. Moreover participants reinforced the message that the support and survival of an indigenous system of healing is vital not because it is more cost-effective than Western medicine but in recognition of the power of a healing system that is rooted in the African culture communities. In addition the conference addressed the issues concerning the placement of traditional medicine in the world of biomedical research. The Dakar conference led to the articulation of a viable model for the political goal of gaining much needed government recognition for the traditional healers.