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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Joachim Victor Gomes, Population Council, Dhaka, House CES (B) 21, Road 118, Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh, ++880-2-8821227, snmjvg@gononet.com and Shamima Nasrin Mili, Social Development Advisor, Canadian Resource Team, 58, Kalabagan 1st Lane, Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, about 30% of STD clients do not have any STD symptoms, rather perceive themselves as having other Sexual Health problems (Chowdhury et al). The traditional healers in Bangladesh, primarily focuses on treatment of sexual dysfunction. Treatment in the form of traditional and herbal remedies is often combined with homeopathic and other methods, primarily based on common misunderstandings and myths propagated by literature that are used to advertise the services of traditional healers. Data were collected from leaflets freely and widely available and advertisement from newspapers. 20 literatures from various herbal and homeopathic service providing institutions have been collected, translated and compiled. The analysis was further substantiated by in-depth interviews and focus group discussion with 32 traditional healers in 4 cities in Bangladesh in 2000. Data were partially analyzed through Anthropac software. The concern for STDs is diffused by physical and psycho sexual myths. According to the traditional healers all sexual problems are linked with two most commonly known STDs, i.e. gonorrhoea and syphilis, which leads to misconceptions. A major concern is that the Traditional Healers never perceived condom as a prevention method to STDs, so condom use has never been prescribed by them. Training of Traditional Healers on STDs and HIV/AIDS prevention methods including Condom Promotion is necessary as they are the major service provider of sexual illnesses due to unavailability of qualified doctors along with developing referral for STD cases to link the traditional healers with STD/HIV prevention in Bangladesh.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Treatment System, STD Prevention
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.