AFRICA TRADITIONAL MEDICINE DAY

Today is Africa Traditional Medicine Day. The theme for marking the Day is “A Decade of Traditional Medicine Development: What Are the Impacts?”

Ghana has since 1991 followed a consistent policy of developing aspects of traditional medicine that has the potential of contributing immensely to healthcare in the country. The policy is backed by in-country needs as well as international health related policies such as the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978, the Ouagadougou Declaration on Primary Healthcare of 2001, at which community health seeking behaviours were to become key components in healthcare planning at the primary level. Traditional medicine constitutes some of the healthcare practices at the community level.

 In a press statement signed by the Alban Sumani Bagbin, Minister of Health to commemorate this day, he noted that for the past decade, Ghana has made some modest gains in its quest to develop traditional medicine.

Among these gains are the establishment of Council for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (CSRPM) in 1975 which has since developed 35 well-researched products.

And KNUST which has since 2005 produced 150 BSc. Herbal Medicine graduates who are physicians’ Assistants with special knowledge in herbal medicine and designated as Medical Herbalists.

Hon. Alban Gbagbin added that the Ministry of Health is aware of the efficacy of herbal medicines the potential dangers that can arise from misapplication or abuse of herbal medicines. For this reason, a strong code of ethics of “do-no-harm” has been instituted to prevent excesses and hazardous practices that characterized unregulated forms of practice in the past and nothing would be done to jeopardize the beliefs, rights, businesses and health of individuals or any group under the pilot projects in the hospitals.

 He however implore all citizens, at their own will or when necessary, to call at the accredited hospitals for assessment check-up, counseling and education on what the new Herbal Medicine Unit stands for. The hospitals and their locations are as follows: