Traditional health practitioners' perceptions, herbal treatment and management of HIV and related opportunistic infections.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In South Africa, traditional health practitioners' (THPs) explanatory frameworks concerning illness aetiologies are much researched. However there is a gap in the literature on how THPs understand HIV-related opportunistic infections (OIs), i.e. tuberculosis, candidiasis and herpes zoster. This study aimed to comprehend THPs' understandings of the aforementioned; to ascertain and better understand the treatment methods used by THPs for HIV and OIs, while also contributing to the documentation of South African medicinal plants for future conservation.

Methods

The study was conducted in two locations: Strand, Western Cape where THPs are trained and Mpoza village, Mount Frere, Eastern Cape from where medicinal plants are ordered or collected. Semi-structured intervie

SUBMITTER: Davids D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4414384 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature