GHAFTRAM Commends Government

Mr Godfred Yaw Boakye, General Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association, (GHAFTRAM), has commended the government for supporting the practice of traditional medicine in the country.

The association expressed profound gratitude to Major Courage Quashigah, minister of health, for the proposed Traditional Medicine Practice Council, which when instituted, would go a long way to further promote the practice of traditional medicine in Ghana.

He however called on the health ministry to expedite action on the proposed council.

Mr Yaw Boakye was speaking at the office of the Brong Ahafo Regional branch of GHAFTRAM in Sunyani during a working visit to the region to sensitize members of the federation on the upcoming global summit on HIV/AIDS, traditional medicine and indigenous knowledge.

The summit which takes place from March 14- 18, 2006 in Accra, is organised by the Ghana Government, Africa First, UNAIDS, Ghana AIDS Commission, GHAFTRAM among others.

Mr Yaw Boakye told Space FM that the global summit would brainstorm on how to get a cure for HIV/AIDS.

?For now, we are only managing the infection, but there is the hope that traditional medicine can help in finding cure for HIV/AIDS?, he said.

He added that the summit would also create a platform to exhibit quality traditional medicine to combat HIV/AIDS.

The general secretary urged members of the federation to ?do the right thing to uplift the image of traditional medicine in the society?.

He again called on practitioners to submit their findings to research institutions for tests and subsequent approvals.