In a land where witchcraft is sought after more than science for curing illness, medicine men in Guinea say the Ebola epidemic would be over by now if they had been properly included in the outbreak response. According to a Reuters Thompson Foundation report, from broken bones to impotence to madness, these traditional healers say they have a potion, spell or touch for many ailments Western doctors can't treat. But there's only one cure for Ebola they say: knowledge.
In the forest region of south-eastern Guinea, where the virus was detected last March, disseminating information using modern technology has proved challenging, resulting in the disease outstaying its welcome.
Karamoko Ibrahima Fofana, president of the association of traditional healers in the town of Macenta, said guérisseurs, as they are known, have unique access to remote villages. "Guérisseurs are often the first port of call for the sick," said Fofana, who is also an imam at the central mosque in Macenta. "We could have spread information on how to protect against Ebola or told people with symptoms to seek help in the treatment centres."
Instead, the traditional healers were sometimes accused of spreading the deadly virus. After all, it was the claim of a guérisseur in Sierra Leone that she could cure Ebola that drew the first Guinean victims across the border, Fofana recalled. Fofana admits the guérisseurs in his association didn't know what Ebola was at first, but after training from UN staff they're keen to spread information – and not the virus. "If a guérisseur has been trained on Ebola and is then caught treating a suspected case, they are fined $7, stripped of their membership and reported to the police," he said.
Jean Marie Dangou, head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Guinea, said the "Stop Ebola" campaign based on modern communication technology, had all but failed. "For about one year the main communication strategy was built around media, mainly radio and TV, but it wasn't successful. The country is still dealing with tough and repetitive resistance," Dangou said.
West Africa has recorded some weekly declines in new confirmed cases of Ebola since the start of 2015, but resistance in some communities has undermined efforts to end the epidemic. The main message from this outbreak is that communication must be adapted to fit the local culture, Dangou said. Word of mouth may be a better way of getting information out than modern methods in parts of the world where broadcast signals are weak and power for electrical appliances is scarce.
"Lessons learned from Ebola in Guinea can be applied to cholera, malaria or any other infectious disease in other parts of the world that rely on an oral tradition," Dangou added.
[link url="http://allafrica.com/stories/201503022032.html"]Thomson Reuters Foundation material[/link]
[link url="https://www.medicalbrief.co.za/archives/traditional-healers-are-modernising-but-remain-unregulated/"]See also: SA traditional healers modernise but remain unregulated[/link]