The public health implications of ethnomedical practices

The public health implications of ethnomedical practices are extensive. In particular, there is the need to research the cultural and social behaviour patterns relevant to health care in order to utilise aspects of ethnomedical practices within a comprehensive health care system. To exploit the positive aspects of the ethnomedical practices successfully, health education for the consumers (the population) and the producers (the health workers) must be developed. Because of the limited resources of most developing countries and as a part of the movement away from "industrialized medicine", a large number of health auxiliary workers, including ethnomedical practitioners, need to be trained and deployed to develop and maintain this new health care system.