Department of International Health and Medical Anthropology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
Leading Program, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2021 Apr 14;115(4):297-306. doi: 10.1093/trstmh/traa135.
Mycetoma patients frequently present with advanced disease, the cause of which is multi-factorial, but the use of traditional medicine modalities has been shown to be an important one. Traditional medicine is an integral part of the Sudanese culture and many mycetoma patients revert to it because it is accessible, cheap and available.
To confirm this anecdotal observation, the pattern and characteristics of traditional medicine use among a group of mycetoma patients seen at the Mycetoma Research Center in Khartoum, Sudan, were studied.
In this descriptive, cross-sectional, hospital-based study, 389 mycetoma-confirmed patients were included. All of them had used traditional medicine at some stage of their mycetoma treatment. Among them, 66% had first consulted traditional healers for mycetoma treatment. In this study, 58% had consulted religious healers known as fakis, while the majority (72%) of those who consulted specialist healers had consulted herbalists. The most frequent type of traditional medicine received by patients from religious healers was al-azima (31%) and the most common treatment given by the specialist healers was herbal medicine (46%).
Traditional medicine can lead to a delay in seeking medical care and serious complications. Collaboration with traditional healers, and training and educating them to refer mycetoma patients to specialised centres is vital to ensure that they receive proper treatment in a timely and efficient manner.
足菌肿患者常出现晚期疾病，其病因是多因素的，但传统医学的应用已被证明是一个重要因素。传统医学是苏丹文化的一个组成部分，许多足菌肿患者会转向传统医学，因为它是可及的、廉价的和可用的。
为了证实这一传闻观察，我们研究了在苏丹喀土穆的足菌肿研究中心就诊的一组足菌肿患者中传统医学应用的模式和特征。
在这项描述性、横断面、基于医院的研究中，纳入了 389 例确诊的足菌肿患者。他们所有人在足菌肿治疗的某个阶段都使用过传统医学。其中，66%的人首先咨询传统治疗师治疗足菌肿。在这项研究中，58%的人咨询了被称为 fakis 的宗教治疗师，而大多数（72%）咨询专科治疗师的人咨询了草药医生。患者从宗教治疗师那里获得的最常见的传统医学类型是 al-azima（31%），而专科治疗师最常提供的治疗是草药（46%）。
传统医学可能导致就医延迟和严重并发症。与传统治疗师合作，并对他们进行培训和教育，以将足菌肿患者转介到专门中心，对于确保他们及时、有效地获得适当治疗至关重要。
