Improving Traditional-Conventional Medicine Collaboration: Perspectives from Cameroonian Traditional Practitioners

Abstract

The World Health Organization recognizes traditional medicine as a vital health-care resource in developing countries and has encouraged governments to adopt policies to officially acknowledge and regulate the practice of traditional medicine. However, in many countries, including Cameroon, policy makers are reluctant to accept traditional medicine, and there is a critical lack of cooperation between conventional and traditional medicine practitioners. As a result, traditional practitioners with vague knowledge of anatomy and divergent diagnostic methods handle hospital-diagnosed cases, while charlatans peddle fake medicines, putting the lives of the poorest Cameroonians at risk. The fact that patients use conventional and traditional health-care simultaneously calls for an improved dialogue between practitioners of both medicines. An inspection of the traditional practitioners' views reveals that they are aware of the many weaknesses of their practice and are eager to collaborate with the conventional medicine sector for their eventual inclusion into the national public health strategy.