A Review of Preventive Care Offered by Bapedi Traditional Health Practitioners in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Description

Page: 161-63

Sejabaledi A. Rankoana (Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Limpopo, Sovenga, South Africa)

This review describes the type of preventive care offered by traditional health practitioners. The review determines whether the type of preventive health care offered by traditional health practitioners encompasses the three levels of health promotion, namely primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. The findings of the review show that traditional health practitioners offer preventive care at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Primary prevention reduces susceptibility to disease; secondary prevention embraces early detection of disease by the patient, a family member, or through diagnosis by the practitioner to limit disease progression; whereas tertiary prevention attempts to allow the patient to recover from the disease and reduces the long-term effects of disease complications. According to this review, preventive health care offered by the practitioners can be used to significantly contribute to disease prevention, especially for infections such as COVID-19 and measles, and also prescribed for rehabilitation.