There is hope for the future in traditional medicine - Health Minister

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a real time challenge to healthcare providers and policy makers around the world especially developing countries without robust health systems in place.

As part of concerted efforts to manage the pandemic, the Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, brought together all the major stakeholders of Traditional and Alternative medicine Practitioners largely represented by the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Associations (GHAFTRAM).

They were addressed extensively on the public health protocols, making reference to the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 on the role of Traditional medicine Practitioners in healthcare promotion to identify possible COVID-19 herbal medicines to manage the symptoms of COVID-19 and/or treat the infection.

In the meeting, the Honourable Minister made provision for Personal protective equipment (PPE) to be given to the Traditional and alternative medicine Practitioners as part of the fight against COVID-19 in 2020.

The Traditional medicine Practitioners submitted herbal products to be evaluated for the management of COVID-19 infection.

The Minister for Health, Hon. Kwaku Agyemang Manu in good faith through the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Directorate (TAM-D) submitted the products (33 in number) to the Centre for Plant Medicine Research (CPMR) for analysis.

The CPMR after their preliminary analysis reported on 18 Herbal products which passed the initial toxicity studies, phytochemical evaluation and microbial analysis and thus considered for evaluation for their anti-SARS-COV-2 activity.

The Director of Traditional and Alternative Medicine Directorate (TAM-D), Dr. Mrs. Anastasia Yirenkyi, on Monday, the 10th May, 2021 met with the Director and the Head of Clinical Pathology Department of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), Prof. Abraham Annan (middle) and Prof. Regina Appiah Oppong (right) for a collaborative effort on the evaluation of the selected 18 herbal products for their anti-SARS-COV-2 activity, they deliberated on the source of funding since scientific research is costly.

They further discussed strengthening intellectual property rights and timeliness of the study as well as stakeholder engagements.

It’s our utmost belief that with the support of government and commitment of all stakeholders, our concerted effort will yield a positive result.