By Mofor Samuel
The 7th African Traditional Medicine Day has come and gone with not much done as far as its celebration was concerned. But for the Secretary of State for Public Health, Alim Hayatou, who presided over its celebration at the national level, little or nothing was done at the regions.
In the South West Region, and more precisely in Buea, Dr Richard Fru, a traditional healer, and the CEO of the Dr Fru’s Garden of Eden International Healing and Research Foundation, organized a press conference to educate the population on the importance of traditional medicine.
For two hours pressmen from within and without the region bombarded him with questions on the subject matter. The theme of this year’s celebration was:”Traditional Medicine and Patients’ Security”. Some of the major issues raised during the press conference centred around the day’s theme, Wealth Health Organisation’s promotion of traditional medicine, clarification of doubts about traditional medicine, malpractice in the domain-the issue of quacks, charlatans and fake traditional healers; no law regulating the practice in Cameroon, the divided nature of traditional healers, and the administration blocking traditional healers etc on the media.
The Administration was conspicuously absent during the press conference even though it was the only activity in the region to celebrate the day. Was it a sign of the unhealthy relationship existing between the administration in the region and the traditional healers?
Whatever the case, one thing is certain: traditional medicine has its place in Cameroon -whether we like it or not.
The one big question is what is traditional medicine all about? Secondly what does the World Health Organization say about it? Traditional medicine is generally the old health care practices linked to a culture. It used to exist before the coming or advent of modern scientific medicine. It has been practiced in different forms by all cultures and so we can talk of African Medicine, Asian or Chinese Medicine. Traditional healers consider health as the intimate association of the physical, mental social moral and spiritual wellbeing. In traditional medicine, emphasis is on the moral and spiritual aspect of existence and this gives a new dimension to healthcare and permits man to maintain good health.
As far as African Traditional Medicine is concerned, the progressive development of this medicine resurfaced again on the scene following the political events in the 60's.
With the coming of independence, the African saw the need to redefine his socio-cultural identity and traditional medicine was an integral part of this heritage. Hence the forceful comeback of traditional medicine as Africans freely went back to their roots.
Moreover, Africans had never been completely cut off from traditional medicine in spite of the introduction of modern medicine by the colonial masters. The economic situation of African countries made the techniques and importation of medicines less accessible making the powers that be to look into the problem and study the possibility of going back to traditional medicine to improve on the healthcare situation.
This concept was approved by the International Conference on Primary Health Care which held in Alma Ata in 1978. The Alma Ata Declaration in its description of Primary Health Care, stressed on the need of bringing together all those involved in healthcare, if need be traditional healers, prepare them socially and technically to work as a team and to respond to the health needs of their localities.
Since the incorporation of traditional medicine in WHO’s programmes in 1976, the gap between traditional and modern medicine seems to be somehow filled. Practitioners of modern medicine henceforth show some keen interest in numerous traditional practices and a growing number of traditional healers have started to accept and use certain modern techniques.
In certain developing countries some health administrators have recommended the association to Primary Health Care of traditional healers who understand the socio-cultural context of the local population, who are well respected and who must have acquired a considerable experience. Economic consideration, the distances to be covered in certain countries to get to a health facility, the influence of traditional beliefs, the lack of health professionals particularly in rural areas are some of the factors that contributed to this recommendation. Adequate programmes for the training and orientation of traditional birth attendants have already been put in place in many countries.
Finally in Resolution AFR/RC28/R3, WHO and member states were invited to take appropriate measure on the use of essential drugs and medicinal plants of the traditional pharmacopoeia to satisfy the fundamental needs of the African Pharmaceutical Industry.
Earlier in Resolution AFR/RC24/R14, The Regional Committee had decided that the technical discussions of its 26th Session will have as theme: “Traditional Medicine and its role in the development of health services in Africa.” The inclusion of experts in traditional medicine in the board of regional committee experts saw the creation of Resolution AFR/RC25/R8 underlining the interest to revalorize this heritage.
Following these resolutions, the WHO Regional Office for Africa gave a strong impulse to the traditional medicine programme both at regional and national levels. Different member states have been trying to put in place a mechanism to create a narrow link between traditional and modern medicine laying emphasis on the training of the traditional healers and to educate them to improve on the results and eliminate negative practices.
After independence traditional medicine regained its rights in most countries as moves were made towards its acknowledgement, official status, harmonization and last but not the least its collaboration with modern medicine. In spite of all these moves, it has not been easy to establish the facts on the actual situation of traditional medicine due to lack of data and statistics in several countries where things have been reduced to conjectures.
The first meeting of regional experts on this question was held in 1976 at the Regional Office. After analyzing the situation prevailing in countries, proposing definitions, bringing out both negative and positive aspects of traditional medicine; the meeting proposed approaches to be used, underlined the need of a political option in member states and formulated recommendations on the training of traditional healers, the circulation of scientific information as well as the research to be carried out to promote traditional medicine and to integrate both traditional and modern medicine in the health system.
After defining terminologies like: traditional medicine and traditional healer, studying the diagnostic procedure, including methods, techniques and products used underlining the positive aspects and the inadequacies, the participants came out with recommendations underlining the need to:
-take a firm political decision in matters of traditional medicine
-promulgate laws and regulations translating this decision
-identify and carry out a census of valuable healers
-establish a narrow collaboration between the two systems
-motivate traditional healers to participate in health team work activities
-motivate members of the health team to accept traditional healers
-promote multidisciplinary activities by including traditional healers.
Judging from these recommendations and going by what is obtained in Cameroon today, there is still a lot of feet -dragging on this domain particularly by the powers that be, health workers ,and to some extent the traditional healers themselves.
For example the law regulating the practice in Cameroon is yet to go through in parliament. Traditional healers are still in dispersed ranks. As far as the collaboration between healthcare practitioners and traditional healers are concerned, there is much of talking than action. When one realizes that traditional medicine existed before the advent of modern medicine and that close to 80% of Cameroonians still rely on it, there is every reason for the government to put in place a mechanism to regulate the practice. By so doing, the local population which depends on this medicine will see their health problems better taken care of and this will go a long way to improve on the health status of the Cameroonian population.
Great
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