Public Healthcare Access: Burdens and Adaptation in Ibarapa Nomadic Community of Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Health burden, coping strategies and access to public healthcare facilities are examined using a medical ecological approach and ethnography among Ibarapa nomads. They live in bands in far distances from Yoruba populated towns in the Ibarapa area, where grazing culture makes healthcare facilities inaccessible. Vulnerable to high morbidity and health risks due to snake-bites, malaria, zoonosis and some other infections, but lacking healthcare facilities, they mostly use faith-based healing, herbal remedies and self-medications. Seventeen percent of the nomads access healthcare facilities from distant towns in Ibarapa. Equitable access to healthcare requires mobile healthcare for semi-sedentary nomads and permanent health clinics for sedentary nomads.