Traditional healers call for the regulation of herbal medical practice

Wa, June 7, GNA - The Won Waana Traditional Healers Association based at Wa in the Upper West Region has called on the Ministry of Health to regulate herbal medical practice in the country and to organise workshops on the administration of drugs for the practitioners. Mr Mahama Topie, Chairman of the Association, noted that the unemployment situation in the country has propelled all manner of people to veer into the preparation of herbal concoctions and dispensing them to innocent people without any consideration of the harm they could cause to patients.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Wa at the weekend after a general meeting of the Association, he observed that the absence of a regulatory body to check the activities of quacks in the system was undermining the development of herbal medicine.

He said innocent victims ran to hospitals and clinics 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 must, therefore, do more to arrest the situation to prevent innocent patients from falling victims to this unbridled desire by people, who are bent on making money at all cost no matter the consequences to their fellow human beings.

Touching on the planting of trees and other herbal plants to support their work, he said the Association has acquired land at Busa in the Wa Municipality and at the outskirts of Dokpong, in Wa Township but due to lack of technical support and money to cater for people engaged to take care of the plants against bush fires, the project failed to materialize. He, therefore, appealed to the Forestry Commission to support them to realise their ambition of cultivating raw materials for their medicine. 7 June 10