The systematic neglect of culture is the single biggest barrier to advancing the highest attainable standard of health worldwide, reveals research.
The authors argue that cultures of all kinds - not only people's religious or ethnic identity but also professional and political cultures - have been sidelined and misunderstood by both medical professionals and society as a whole.
Biomedical approaches to health and wellbeing have contributed to important reductions in mortality and morbidity worldwide, but they have yet to adjust to the strong effects of culture on health.
"After all, had cultures of trust been key components of Ebola care in West Africa, the world would almost certainly not now be facing a potential Ebola pandemic," said professor David Napier, a leading medical anthropologist from University College London (UCL).
The systematic neglect and misunderstanding of culture in medicine has led to the development of medical systems where personal contact between patients and caregivers is neglected, he added.
In the case of Ebola spread, few patients cared about disease indicators such as viral load, blood pressure or lung capacity.
"It is only when they were connected in a recognisable way to themselves and their life goals that these measurements became significant," authors noticed.
The authors also condemned the widespread and increasing role of profit making enterprises in health.
"Only if health professionals, researchers and health managers begin to appreciate the central role of culture in how we perceive and understand health will we begin to be able to move towards a system in which health is as much about caring as it is about curing," Napier said.
The paper appeared in the prestigious journal The Lancet.
