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Bound up in a history of mistrust, once outlawed and condemned as witchdoctors, reliant on faith, communications with ancestors and guided by spirits, traditional healers have an uneasy relationship with the conventional medical establishment.

However South Africa’s efforts to control the spread of HIV means traditional healers are being encouraged to collaborate with a biomedical system based on treating patients using scientific evidence.

We look at this unlikely success story – bringing together seemingly incompatible concepts of medicine and health care.

Claudia Hammond speaks to traditional healers and biomedical researchers about the similarities and conflicts in their very different approaches and looks at the practical ways in which healers and medics are coming together to face the challenge of HIV.

Can visits to healers delay patients with diseases such as HIV from getting life-saving medication? Or could they be the key to ensuring every patient can get what they need?

Picture: Baba Ximba, KwaZuluNatal, Credit: Claudia Hammond