Shortage of professional health workers in Ghazni Province force many patients to seek treatment from communal healers who may use risky practices to cure diseases. Shortage of professional health workers in Ghazni Province force many patients to seek treatment from communal healers who may use risky practices to cure diseases. Some traditional healers give herbs to patients while others use acupuncture, body massage and other unique practices.
“Whenever I or a member of my family feel ill, we visit an old lady in our village who has been curing people for long,” said Lal Mohammad, 42, a resident of Ghazni city. “She tattoos the pain areas and it really helps,” said Mohammad adding that another method used by the local healer was extracting blood with a goat’s horn.
“This is a way of treatment for centuries in our country and it is effective,” said 55-year-old Haji Mohammad, a resident of Geelan District adding that his body pain was cured with tattoos inflicted on his legs and waist by a local healer.
However, everyone is not pleased with traditional healing practices and some even accuse the healers of causing deaths and unnecessary pain to their ill-informed patients.
“My younger brother was suffering from hand pain and we took him to a local healer who extracted blood from his veins using a horn but instead of curing his pain it has paralyzed his hand,” said Hamidullah, who lives in Dih Yak District of Ghazni. Abdullah, a local man, alleged that a traditional healer caused the untimely death of his father. Most of the people who visit traditional healers said that they were doing so because they had no other options. “There are not clinics, doctors and medicines in the rural areas,” said Hamidullah.
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) says, with funds from foreign donors and partnership with non-government organizations, basic health services have been provided to over 80 percent of the country. MoPH officials, meanwhile, assure that efforts are underway to extend health services to all rural parts of the country where access to healthcare is problematic.
People in Ghazni’s Malestan District, however, said there were health facilities but lacked professional personnel and medicines.
“Patients go to clinics and return empty-handed and with their illnesses untreated, so they go to traditional healers,” said Mohammad Ali, a resident of Malestan.
Afghanistan has some of the worst health indicators in the world where every hour at least 2 women die from pregnancy or childbirth complications and lack of access to healthcare services, according to aid agencies.
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