Herbal medicine should be the last resort to patients- Herbalist

Wa, July 4, GNA - Mr Mahama Topie, Chairman of the Won Waana Traditional Healers Association in the Upper West Region, has advised herbalists to recognise the lead role orthodox medicine plays in the health delivery system.

He also asked the herbalists not to become the first point of call for patients. Mr Topie who gave the advice in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Wa at the weekend said herbal medicine should be the last resort for patients.

"We should only go on with our therapy when patients have sought clinical treatment and failed to recover," he stressed. Mr Topie said: "It is wrong for some traditional medical practitioners to trumpet that their medicines can cure all diseases." He called on the Ministry of Health to regulate herbal medical practice and organize workshops on the administration of drugs for the practitioners. Mr Topie noted that the unemployment situation in the country has propelled all manner of people to veer into the preparation of herbs and dispensing them to innocent people without any consideration of the harm they could cause to patients.

He observed that the absence of a regulatory body to check the activities of quacks in the system is undermining the development of herbal medicine.

"It is the hospitals and clinics these innocent victims run when they develop complications arising out of the administration of herbal preparations by quacks thereby putting great strain on the national economy. "The Health Ministry should therefore do more to arrest the situation to prevent innocent patients from falling victims to this unbridled desire by people who are bent in making money at all cost no matter the consequences to their fellow human beings," he said. 4 July 10