ArticleBMC complementary and alternative medicine2017
Traditional healer treatment of HIV persists in the era of ART: a mixed methods study from rural South Africa.
Article in BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Being HIV positive and staying on antiretroviral therapy in Africa: A qualitative systematic review and theoretical model.PloS one · 2019Pooled it
- Understanding the perspective of traditional healers on their role within the Malawian healthcare system: a qualitative study in Thyolo District.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2026Article
- Health economics and financing for health systems transformation: lessons from five African epistemological frameworks.The Pan African medical journal · 2026Article
- Can Traditional Health Practitioners Deliver HIV Counseling and Testing Services? A Pilot Study in Rural South Africa.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2025Article
- Healthcare professionals' perspective on collaboration with traditional medical practitioners in HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis care in rural Ethiopia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A individually randomized controlled trial comparing Healer-led vs. clinician- led training to improve personal protective equipment use among traditional healers in South Africa.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Coping mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in metropolitan Johannesburg, South Africa: A qualitative study.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2023Article
- 'With this study, we have hope that something is coming': community members' perceptions of HIV cure-related research in Durban, South Africa - a qualitative focus group study.HIV research & clinical practice · 2023Article
- Utilisation of traditional healers among older people living with HIV in South Africa: a WHO SAGE well-being of older people study.AIDS research and therapy · 2023Article
- Exploring Knowledge about Fang Traditional Medicine: An Informal Health Seeking Behaviour for Medical or Cultural Afflictions in Equatorial Guinea.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- Traditional and biomedical health practices of adolescent boys and young men living with perinatally-acquired HIV in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.Global public health · 2023Article
- A qualitative study on traditional healers' perceptions and management of epidermolysis bullosa.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2023Article
- "Sex is supposed to be naturally more pleasurable": Healers as providers of holistic sexual and reproductive healthcare in Uganda.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2022Article
- Health-Seeking Behaviors in Mozambique: A Mini-Study of Ethnonursing.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Article
- Prevalence, Perception and Predictors of Concomitant Herbal Medicine Use among HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis Patients in Metekel Zone, Northwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2022Article
- Throwing the bones to diagnose HIV: Views of rural South African traditional healers on undertaking HIV counselling and testing.AIDS care · 2021Article
- Internal migration and health in South Africa: determinants of healthcare utilisation in a young adult cohort.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Understanding non-communicable diseases: combining health surveillance with local knowledge to improve rural primary health care in South Africa.Global health action · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) substantially contributes to the burden of disease and health care provision in sub-Saharan Africa, where traditional healers play a major role in care, due to both their accessibility and acceptability. In rural, northeastern South Africa, people living with HIV often ping-pong between traditional healers and allopathic providers.
methodsWe conducted 27 in-depth interviews and 133 surveys with a random sample of traditional healers living in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, where anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is publicly available, to learn: (1) healer perspectives about which HIV patients they choose to treat; (2) the type of treatment offered; (3) outcomes expected, and; (4) the cost of delivering treatment.
resultsHealers were mostly female (77%), older (median: 58.0 years; interquartile range [IQR]: 50-67), with low levels of formal education (median: 3.7 years; IQR: 3.2-4.2). Thirty-nine healers (30%) reported being able to cure HIV in an adult patients whose (CD4) count was >350cells/mm
conclusionTraditional healers referred suspected HIV-infected patients to standard allopathic care, yet continued to treat HIV-infected patients with higher CD4 counts. A greater emphasis on patient education and healer engagement is warranted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.