Uganda's Traditional Health Practitioners Urged to Combat AIDS

On Wednesday in Kampala, Ugandan Minister of Health Jim Muhwezi asked traditional health practitioners to do more to involve communities in HIV prevention. His statement was part of the commemoration of African traditional medicine day, whose theme this year is "African Traditional Medicine: Contribution to Preventing HIV." He noted that up to 80 percent of Africa's population relies on traditional medicine, and that "traditional health practitioners are well integrated in the communities and they are major stakeholders" in prevention in Uganda and Africa at large. "The government is in the final stages of developing a national policy on traditional and complementary medicine," Muhwezi said, a policy that "will be crucial in defining the role of traditional medicine in the national health care delivery systems."

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