WHO Expert Committee on traditional medicine meets in Brazzaville

Accra, Nov. 29, GNA - The 12-member World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Expert Committee on Traditional Medicine on Wednesday began a four-day meeting in Brazzaville, republic of Congo, to review and adopt documents developed to complement other tools for facilitating the institutionalization of traditional medicine in the health systems of member states.

The first document, titled Strategic Framework and Action Plan for Strengthening Capacities for Local Production of Traditional Medicines, focuses on activities that would lead to the production of traditional medicines which are compliant with good manufacturing practices. A statement from the WHO received in Accra said participants would also review Regulatory Framework for the Protection and Promotion of Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge in Africa.

The document provides guidelines for use in the formulation and implementation of national policies and legislations for the protection of intellectual property rights.

The third document, Traditional Medicine Information Kit for Consumers, is meant to ensure that various stakeholders are appropriately informed and well sensitized about the role of traditional medicine in health care.

Opening the meeting, WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo, expressed satisfaction with the fact that some of the tools and guidelines adopted by the expert committee since its inception five years ago had been adapted by several countries in the region. He stated that as of November 2006, the tools had been adapted by 14 countries to develop national policies on traditional medicine. Twelve countries had developed legal frameworks for the practice of traditional medicine, 13 countries had develop codes of ethics, and eight for developing strategic plans.

The Regional Director's statement was read on his behalf by the Director of the Division of Healthy Environments and Sustainable Development at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, Dr Chris Mwikissa. Dr Sambo also spoke of "encouraging results" from the use of tools adopted by the expert committee in the development of traditional medicine in Africa.

He illustrated progress made with the standardization and patenting of traditional medicines for the management of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe; the issue of market authorizations for medicines used for the management of malaria, hypertension, sickle cell anaemia in Nigeria and for diabetes mellitus in Madagascar. Similar marketing authorizations have been issued for seven medicines in Burkina Faso.

"The main challenge now is to conduct large-scale randomized trials which require substantial financial resources. Therefore, countries, WHO and development partners need to continue mobilizing additional resources that are needed to validate the safety, efficacy and quality of traditional medicines-evidence that is needed for integration into health systems."

The Regional Expert Committee on traditional Medicine was established in May 2001 in response to Regional Committee Resolution AFR/RC/50/R3 requesting

the Regional Director to establish a regional mechanism to support the monitoring and evaluation of the progress made in the implementation of the Regional Strategy on Promoting the Role of traditional Medicine in Health Systems.

The 12-member committee comprises Dr Regina Badet (Benin), Prof. Jean-Baptiste Nikiema (Burkina Faso), Prof. On'okoko Penge (Democratic Republic of Congo), Prof. Marian Ewurama Addy (Ghana), Dr Jack Gitahte (Kenya), Prof. Drissa Diallo (Mali) and Prof. Adelaide Bela Agostinho (Mozambique). The rest are Dr Donna Kabatesi (Uganda), Dr Motlalepula Matsabisa (South Africa), Dr Paul Mhame (Tanzania), Dr Mamadou Diallo of the African Union and Dr Xiaorui Zhang, Coordinator of the Traditional Medicine programme at WHO Headquarters in Geneva.