[Knowledge of traditional healers on malaria in Kendi (Bandiagara) and Finkolo (Sikasso) in Mali ].

The survey has been carried out in the context of the project "Traditional Practices and Primary Health Care", developed by the Traditional Medicine Department (DMT) of the INRSP and the Swiss Ngo Antenna Technologies, with the support of Aidemet Ngo. The objective was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of traditional healers on uncomplicated and severe malaria, in the perspective of collaboration between traditional and modern medicine for the optimal care of the critical cases. The investigation has been conducted from January to February 2003 in the health areas of Kendié (Bandiagara District, Mopti Region) and Finkolo (Sikasso District and Region). The interviews concerned in total 79 traditional healers, 9 of which were women. The survey showed that the traditional healers have a good knowledge of the symptomatology of uncomplicated and severe malaria, and their diagnosis corresponds with that of the health workers who do not have access to laboratory analyses. On the other hand, the traditional etiology doesn't always correspond with the modern one, even if the traditional healers mention, among the causes of malaria, the mosquito bites. Most treatments were based on plant substances. We identified 66 medicinal species in total. The majority of them had already been studied for anti-plasmodial activity. We therefore investigated 8 of these plants, which had not previously been thoroughly studied. Extracts of different parts of these plants were tested on standard chloroquine-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum; the most active plants were Argemone mexicana, Securinega virosa, Spondias mombin and Opilia celtidifolia, with IC50 ranging from 1.00 to 4.01 microg/ml.