Efforts to promote traditional medicine intensify

Membership of the newly constituted Traditional Medicine Council are urging the government to throw its weight behind it in order to bring sanity into traditional medical practice.Currently, due to poor regulation, all kinds of traditional doctors mount public transport and advertise and sell traditional medicine, which they usually claim can cure as many as 10 diseases.Prof. Laud Okine, Director for Plant Medicine, Mampong, during a media briefing in Accra was of the view that the Food and Drugs Board should be adequately resourced to regulate traditional medicine as a first step towards bringing sanity into the industry. Prof Okine was the leader of a seven-member Ghanaian delegation which visited India from July 24th to 30th July 2006 to learn at first hand the success story of India as a leader in traditional and alternative medicine. He noted that India has recognized traditional health system that include Ayurvea, Yoga and Naturopathy, Usani Tibb, Siddha and Homoeopathy, (AYUSH). Prof Okine described the existing structure of India’s traditional health system as one with registered practitioners, established teaching and postgraduate institutions and national institutions for research. “In India the practitioners use traditional methods of extraction and processing. Packaging is excellent with product name, date of manufacturing and expiry visibly on the products.” Back home, it is a different story, where traditional medicine production and distribution lacks direction. Prof. Okine called for the intervention of the FDB. He added that the Indian government provides 2-4.5% of the health budget of traditional medicine which is being raised to 10%. Prof. Okine announced that the government of India has expressed hope to collaborate with the Ghana government to improve traditional health systems. The areas of cooperation will include research and development of scientific study, standardization and quality control and exchange of experts. India also hopes to adopt a common strategy in collaboration with Ghana to protect traditional medicine from misappropriation. The Minister for Health, Major Rtd Courage Quashigah assured the gathering that government is now taking traditional and alternative medicine seriously. In furtherance of this, he said ten practitioners who claim to have found a cure for HIV/AIDs have been identified and will be encouraged to share their ideas with other experts at Nougouchi Memorial Institute with an aim to utilizing them, if they are found to be efficacious. Major Rtd Quashigah regretted the social cost of treating diseases in Ghana and is calling for a return to a new health paradigm of preventive treatment. “Countries like China and India have gone far with traditional and alternative medicine practice. It is time for Ghana to get into the gear to generate and save money for development,” he concluded.