Mozambique has 300,000 traditional medicine practitioners

Mozambique is thought to have about 300,000 traditional medicine practitioners, of whom 120,000 are not registered with the Institute of Traditional Medicine, the Ministry of Health agency that assures standards of practice in the activity.The ministry wants to register traditional healers and regulate the activity so as to put an end to false promises of miracles in the healing of diseases such as Aids.In Mozambique, about 70 percent of the population resorts to traditional medicine for the treatment of ailments of the body, mind and soul. In addition to the collective beliefs, the appeal of traditional healer services is also explained by poor health service coverage, particularly in rural areas.These figures were unveiled on African Traditional Medicine Day, whose main ceremonies took place on Monday in Inhambane. The regional meeting of Traditional Medicine in the South and Centre of the country, is taking place in the same city, bringing together in conference over 50 traditional doctors and health technicians.