The Sunday Mail
The National Aids Council and the Ministry of Health and Child Care have strengthened their engagement of traditional and faith healers in the response to TB and HIV. The latest meeting was held in Chinhoyi on Friday.
The national TB programme is being funded by the Global Fund and NAC is a sub-recipient of this grant. Some of the key objectives of the meeting were to share basic TB information including signs and symptoms, to address myths and conceptions associated with TB as well as to discuss the role of both traditional and faith healers in TB control and prevention.
NAC’s acting chief executive officer, Mr Raymond Yekeye, in a speech read on his behalf by NAC’s Monitoring and Evaluation Director, Mr Amon Mpofu, highlighted that the grant is targeting traditional and faith healers after the realisation that these cadres are respected members and leaders in communities that that they live in.
“Traditional and faith healers actually command a lot of respect and the majority of our population consult them oftenly hence their involvement will go a long way in improving community referrals which will ultimately result in improvement of TB treatment outcomes,” he said.
Mr Yekeye proceeded to say that the meeting is one of the many activities in the TB grant aimed at sensitising national and sub national leadership of traditional and faith healers so that together they sensitise communities on TB and HIV to better improve treatment outcomes. It is estimated that 80 percent of the people in Zimbabwe consult traditional and faith healers.
Mr Antony Matadi, Program Officer for TB in the National Aids Council indicated that TB should be taken seriously and should be controlled to avoid unnecessary loss of life.
“It is important that as traditional and faith healers we help in reducing new TB infections because you are also at risk of contracting TB from your clients if you do not help them to get treatment”, he said.
One of the participants of the workshop, Mrs Melody Nyakudanga of Katsukunya, Mtoko, said that as a faith healer she had immensely benefitted from the workshop.
She said: “now I know that the holy water that I give to my clients should be accompanied by encouragement to go and get tested for TB and HIV. I have also learnt that I should not discriminate those that may have signs and symptoms of TB or HIV but I must bring them closer to gain their trust.”
A traditional healer and member of the Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association, Mr Gwinyai Rutsito applauded the programme.
“I am sure a lot of us have gained a lot of knowledge. I personally did not know that TB can be cured and that it is advantageous to be diagnosed and start treatment early,” said Mr Rutsito.
Others said that they had learnt that TB is not a disease that only affects the poor but anyone can be affected by TB and that in Zimbabwe TB screening and treatment is free.
Zimbabwe is among the top 30 high TB burden countries for all TB, TB-HIV & Multi-Drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB). Childhood TB accounts for 7-8 percent of annual TB patients in the country.
TB remains a public health problem for the country fueled by HIV which accounts for close to two thirds of TB cases diagnosed every year.
The meeting was attended by representatives of traditional and faith healers, Ministry of Health and Child Care, NAC and World Health Organisation officials.
