Why Tanzanians turn to herbalists

Dar es Salaam. Faith, desperation and lack of awareness on basic health issues among people, are the some of the key reasons why Tanzanians fall prey to unsuspecting herbalists whose aim is to make money.

This reality manifests itself in Tanzania—especially when you realise that the country—with a population of over 45 million—has more herbalists than medical doctors in its healthcare system.

The government recently announced that all herbalists across the country must submit their registration documents and the machines they use to diagnose their patients in 14 days.

As the clock ticks towards the end of the ultimatum, questions have emerged as to what led to the mushrooming of the herbalists in the country in recent times, prompting a government crackdown on the healers.

A researcher from the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), Dr Peter Asilia, argues that if the government would establish a more trusted and efficient healthcare system, some rogue herbalists would find no chance to con the people.

Studies indicate that over 70 per cent of Tanzanians have more faith in the herbalists than medical doctors. That’s why in most rural areas of the country, a sick a person is more likely to first report his/her health problem to a herbalist than to a trained medical personnel.

What’s more, the herbalists are also not as overwhelmed as the doctors. Yet still, some herbalists boast of offering “good” customer care services to their clients through mass media advertising.

The Institute of Traditional Medicine (ITM) in Dar es Salaam has once estimated that one herbalist was available for 4,000 people in Tanzania, while one medical doctor served over 30,000 people.

In such circumstances, it’s the poor and less educated that suffer most—especially when unscrupulous herbalists take advantage of weaknesses in the country’s healthcare system to try and lure patients into accepting questionable treatment options.

For instance, some alternative health practitioners have earned themselves much popularity through advertisements on how to cure infertility in women by using herbs.

The herbalists’ choice of the niche—in treating infertility—has obvious reasons. Infertility, especially in women is most times, a complex condition to treat.

In fact, there is perhaps no area of study in medicine that has advanced more rapidly, nor created more controversy, than the treatment of infertility, according to medical practitioners.

It’s therefore intriguing when a herbalist or alternative health practitioner tells the public, through television, that he/she can heal infertility—even in circumstances where hospital interventions have failed.

For example, one herbalist announced through a TV advert, that he was capable on unblocking the fallopian tubes of any woman who may have failed to conceive, by simply prescribing medicinal herbs.

Alternative medicine—even in developed countries—has been proven not to unblock fallopian tubes. In the US, infertility is a significant problem which affects 7–17 per cent of all couples seeking to have children, some studies show.

Because of the expenses associated with assisted reproductive technologies, such as In-vitro Fertilisation(IVF), some infertile couples may turn to complementary or alternative medicine in an attempt to become pregnant using treatment that they may perceive as being of lower cost, safer, or more effective.

One study, titled “The Use of Complementary and Alternative Fertility Treatment in Couples Seeking Fertility Care: Data from a Prospective Cohort in the United States” has highlighted this fact.

In Tanzania, experts from the Institute of Traditional Medicine do not seem to believe that herbalists can cure infertility.

Prof Rogassian Mahunaah told The Citizen on Sunday recently that it would be impossible to assume that herbalists can cure infertility due to the broadness and complexities of the matter. But the women with infertility problems seem to seek alternative treatment at herbalists’ clinics relentlessly.

Experience shows that the rich and more educated women with infertility challenges will opt for some sophisticated treatment, such as the In-vitro Fertilisation (IVF), especially when surgery has also failed.

However, IVF is an expensive option. It is estimated that only one in five of those who need treatment with IVF receive it in the Western countries, and fewer than one in 100 in the developing world.

In societies, such as Tanzania, where media advertising of alternative healthcare is high, it’s easy for the low income/less educated women to believe that a quick and cheaper treatment can be obtained from the herbalists.

Some self-proclaimed gynecologists, who hide under the umbrella of traditional health practices, have been cashing in on the ignorance of the desperate women by prescribing herbal medicine that was purportedly curing infertility—such as unblocking the women’s fallopian tubes.

The self-proclaimed “doctors” will tell people via TV and radio that they are the specialists of infertility. And through power of the media, people develop a lot of trust in them.

Now that the government has vowed to regulate the practice of herbalists, there is also a pressing need for mass education on what can be cured at the hospital and what the traditional healers can do or not do.