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Health care without traditional medicine is incomplete – Director

By Nana Osei Kyeretwie, GNA    

Sunyani, Nov. 18, GNA – Traditional herbal
medicine has proven to be  efficacious
for the treatment of various diseases since time immemorial, Dr. Kofi Bobi
Barimah, Acting Director, Centre for Plant Medicine Research (CfPMR), says.

“For scientific medicine to be complete in
the cure of diseases, there is the need to add indigenous knowledge which is
the application and use of traditional herbal medicine,”he added.

Dr. Barimah made the declaration in an
interview with the Ghana News Agency after the launch of a book “Traditional
Medicine in Ghana,” which he was the lead author, in Sunyani.

His co-author was Mr. Okyere Bonna, a
Ghanaian writer currently undertaking his doctoral studies in Health
Administration with University of Phoenix, United States of America.

He said in September 1978, the Alma-Ata
Declaration among others, directed that in order to achieve health for all by
the year 2000, “Which we (Ghana) missed,” there was the need for all
governments to ensure the inclusion and application of traditional medicine
practice in the health care services delivery. 

Alma-Ata, now Almaty, Kazakhstan, was part
of the former Union of Soviet Socialists Republic (USSR) and that declaration
was an outcome of an International Conference on Primary Health Care which was
co-sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

But, Dr. Barimah regretted that, “Ghana
could not do according to the declaration and consequently, has not been able
to derive a lot from traditional herbal medicine practice (THMP) as part of the
health care system.”

This is because, he argued, studies
according to WHO had indicated about 80 per cent of Africans relied on
traditional medicine for various health care needs, hence “health care is
incomplete without traditional medicine,” Dr. Barimah stressed.

In justifying further, the need to promote
the THMP to make Ghana’s health care services delivery complete, the Acting
Director for CfPMR, said there was big gap between the available number of
medical practitioners in relation to the number of patients seeking medical
care. 

He said currently, Ghana’s Doctor to Patient
ratio was about 1:8000 whilst with the THMP, the situation is a practitioner to
less than a 1000 patients.

Touching on the significance of the about
190 pages book on THMP industry, Dr. Barimah admitted that traditional medicine
as a subject was relatively a broad area with already many published books.

But he maintained that “this book is one of
a difference because since 2003 I have been working with Ghana Federation of
Traditional Medicine Practitioners (GHAFTRAM) to make adequate demand on the
government for the establishment of Traditional Medicine Practice Council
(TMPC) that was formed in 2010”.

Though the Traditional Medicine Practice
Act (Act 575) which was promulgated in 2000 to control and
regulate THMP had provided for the creation of the TMPC, he said.

 “Our
advocacy and demand gave the needed impetus for its eventual formation which
should have been formed earlier, based on the year of the Act’s promulgation,”
Dr. Barimah added.

According to him, “The generality of
GHAFTRAM membership see me as one of their own in bridging the gap between
research and practice of traditional medicine in the country”.

Earlier, Professor Daniel Obeng-Ofori, Vice
Chancellor (VC), Catholic University College of Ghana, who chaired the
occasion, reiterated the relevance of THMP to health and well-being of
humankind.

Prof. Obeng-Ofori however, bemoaned humanity
and Ghanaians in particular for having lost a lot because of non-documentation
of the volume of knowledge relating to the field of THMP by both practitioners
in the past and even present. 

He therefore commended Dr. Barimah for the
publication of the book which he described as a treasure of health worthy of
reading by every well-meaning Ghanaian to contribute significantly to achieve
the best quality health care services delivery in the country.

Prof. Obeng-Ofori bought the first copy for
GH¢1000.00.

GNA

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