President of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Associations (GHAFTRAM) Prof. Samuel Atto-Duncan has established the need to intensify regulation of traditional medicine practice in the country.
According to him, even though the practice may be difficult to regulate in reality due to its nature, there is the need for the stakeholders to include that in their roles for a holistic diagnosis in the sector.
Establishing the difference between traditional medicine and practice, the Professor reemphasised the need not to ignore the practice that has existed in Ghana for centuries, whilst acknowledging the relevance of technological advancement in treatment.
Prof. Ato Duncan was speaking at the maiden edition of the Onua National Dialogue, with focus on Herbal and Traditional Medicine Advertising in Ghana on the theme; Working Together to Promote and not to Inhibit our Heritage, Friday, October 27, 2023, at the Executive Theatre of Media General in Accra.
“Traditional medicine and practice are two phases that need to be regulated differently,” he said.
“I know someone, –a herbalist –who retrieved bullets from someone’s body by placing a herb on the affected area. Such a herb is not registered, but it is an indigenous practice so how do we regulate that practice? That should be the issue and that’s what’s under the Traditional Medicine Practioners Council (TMPC),” he explained.
According to him, there is the need for the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to attach the practice aspect of the sector to their mandate, in order to sanitise the field with the Council.
“There is the need to bring the FDA and the TMPC together to look at it,” he averred.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Centre of Awareness also revealed that “the role of the FDA and TMPC are both to protect lives. When we talk about regulation, it is to protect people who consume medicine as well as those that herbal medicine are applied on.
“We should be very firm to look at the regulations in order to protect lives. We should also not lose sight of that indigenous knowledge that has been used for ages.”
In embracing modernity without compromising originality, the Prof. said “there is the need for improvements where research has come in but the indigenous way of doing things must also be preserved.”
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