Health Dept to rope in sangomas & traditional healers to assist in detecting chronic illnesses
Research by the World Health Organization and Wits University has revealed an increased risk of diabetes and hypertension among women as young as 22.
FILE: Traditional healer Gogo Kamo, does an online consultation with a client in her consultation room in Kempton Park, South Africa on 16 April 2021. Picture: Guillem Sartorio/AFP
JOHANNESBURG - The Health Department said it was roping in sangomas and traditional healers to assist with the detection of chronic illnesses.
Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla attended the South African Medical Research Council’s (SAMRC) presentation on the rise of non-communicable diseases.
Research by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Wits University has revealed an increased risk of diabetes and hypertension among women as young as 22.
Researchers said this may be biological and inherited from their pregnant mothers.
Phaahla said that according to their statistics, South Africa has about 80,000 practising sangomas throughout the country.
He said that’s why they were roping them in the fight against lifestyle diseases.
"We are not interfering with their mode of diagnosis but we asking those who are willing to come on board, to leave them with a blood pressure machine, as you do your other thing, this is how this one works, if it is like this, you know there is a problem and you can send the person to the nearest clinic."
Phaahla said that diabetes remains the second leading underlying cause of death, only being surpassed by COVID-19.