Dr Chioma Asuzu talks to ecancer at the 2013 AORTIC meeting in Durban, South Africa about traditional healers in African and the need to work together with them as part of a community in order to improve a patients care.

Dr Asuzu and her team assessed the use and impact of traditional and alternative medical treatment by cancer patients, its implications and explored possibilities for greater understanding and cooperation between these practitioners and their health systems with scientific medicine.

The study found that 24% of the 209 participants have visited traditional or alternative healers before coming to the health facilities.

30.0% of the 50 traditional healer participants said they would talk to researchers, while 28.0% were unsure. 42.0% said that they would not assist or talk to the researchers.