Mistrust in Medicine Due to Colonialism in Central Africa with Dr. Sara Lowes

Trust is essential in medicine. Not only between a doctor and patient but between a community and the health care system. A unique difference between the United States and Africa is the relative recency of colonial powers controlling the country. Our colonial past is distant dating back to the 1700s. For Africa, it's as recent as the late 20th century. But how does history of recent colonialism affect current attitudes towards medicine?

How Colonialism Bred Mistrust

Today's guest, Dr. Sara Lowes has spent a lot of her academic career trying to better understand the intersection of governance and economics in central Africa. One question she and a colleague posed was to better understand why some parts of central Africa were more resistant to modern medical care than others. Specifically, they tried to understand why some people were more likely to refuse free medical care or vaccinations than others.

What they found is that the more interventions that occurred by the colonial powers many decades ago created more distrust generations later in that same community. One reason for the mistrust was that a lot of those treatments were done without any consent and at the end of a gun. Also, many of the treatments had side effects like blindness which led many to fear the appearance of these colonial medical teams.

Mistrust Persists

There are a number of childhood diseases which can be effectively prevented with simple vaccinations. Dr. Lowes and her colleagues found that the more a community had a contact with these treatments, the less likely they would vaccinate even many decades later. This even extends to simple medical test like blood draws for HIV. What is so amazing is how even 50+ years later the colonial actions by France caused a perpetuating mistrust of the modern medical system.

Traditional Medical Practitioners a Solution?

Many central Africans, especially those in rural regions, first visit with a traditional healer for their health concerns. These healers rarely have any formal training outside of an apprenticeship. However, they are often a more trusted source of healing within their village so perhaps they are the solution to rebuilding trust in modern medicine. By becoming advocates of some modern treatments like vaccines, Dr. Lowes speculates that they might be the key to fixing the modern medicine mistrust.