African traditional medicine is widely perceived as a form of voodoo medicine, as a survival of some stone age pre-modern illiterate formation that still functions and fulfils medical purposes for Africans. This is, at least, how many anthropologists have viewed the subject. They have argued that African traditional medicine is unlike ‘western medicine’, and then go on to establish how witchcraft and magic is embedded in this ‘unique’ medical practice. African medicine men and women are portrayed as witch doctors – as if the trado-medical profession is about treating and curing witchcraft.
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Botswana Botswana’s 2015 mHealth Innovation Competition has been launched with much promise from those taking part to excel beyond limit. This is the third competition in a series of such competitions organised by the Botswana Innovation Hub and other stakeholders who include Orange Botswana, University of Botswana, Unicef, BotswanaUPPEN Partnership, CADLINE, SAIS (Southern African Innovation Support Programme), PEPFAR (The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and the Ministry of Health.

BUP’s Informatics Program has been spearheading mHealth and mHealth capacity building for over seven years now, starting with a simple pilot study taking photos of skin lesions with phones and sending to dermatologists.
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Johannesburg — Patient and leading health organisations in South Africa have now joined a Fix the Patent Laws campaign launched in 2011 by Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to push for reform of the country’s current patent laws.
The campaign’s promoters say that these laws severely restrict access to affordable medicines for all people living in South Africa.
The organisations which have adhered to the campaign are: People Living With Cancer (PLWC), South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), DiabetesSA, CanSurvive, SA Federation for Mental Health (SAFMH), Stop Stock Outs, Cancer Association of Southern Africa (CANSA), Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Alliance (SABDA), South African Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (SANCD Alliance), Marie Stopes, Epilepsy South Africa and Cape Mental Health.
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