Health Care in East African Pastoral Societies: Towards Locality-based Medical Support

The lack of health care provision in East African pastoral societies is related to geographical distance from medical facilities and high mobility of pastoral livelihoods. It is also related to the risk of disease infectionand aggravation. Under conditions with limited access to health care, pastoralists seek to improve a patient's condition by looking for a particular treatment among the options available. This strenuous effort creates a treatment-episode that involves pluralistic medical behavior across distinct medical realms. The need for health care both motivates active searching for treatment and creates a fresh approach for sustainable health care by creating a medical environment that combines "traditional" and etic approaches through collaboration between traditional healers and medical professionals. To date, consideration has been limited to two alternatives for improving access to health care: mobile clinics or fixed medical facilities at strategic locations. However, the attention should be focused on the efforts of the pastoralists themselves, which have the latent possibility of a health-equity-creating locality that secures sustainable provision of medical services to pastoralists.