Editorial: Unregistered Traditional Medicine Is A Danger To Public Health

Yesterday, the state owned Daily Graphic reported that over 521,000 traditional and alternative medical practitioners operating in the country are unregistered and unlicensed. The paper quoted the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC) as saying that the figure includes about 321,000 unregistered or unlicensed traditional medicine practitioners and over 200,000 complementary alternative medical practitioners.

The paper further reported that practitioners and institutions that are operating illegally, constituted more than 80 per cent of the local traditional and alternative medicine industry.

The TMPC was birthed by the Traditional Medicine Practice Act, 2000 (Act 575) to regulate the practice of traditional medicine, to register practitioners and license practices, to regulate the preparation and sale of herbal medicines and to provide for related matters.

Section 9(1) of Act 575 states that: “A person shall not operate or own premises as a practitioner or produce herbal medicine for sale unless that person is registered in accordance with this Act”.

The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the TMPC, Dr Michael Kyeremateng, who spoke on behalf of the Council, however, said the alarming rate at which unauthorised practitioners had flooded the airwaves in particular to advertise their institutions and products was even more concerning.

“Currently, in Ghana, we know that we have over 60 to 70 per cent of our population accessing traditional and alternative medical centres for primary health care. Issues escalate before they move on to any other allopathic centres for emergencies.

“You realise that the life of the average Ghanaian is at risk because of so many mushroom clinics and hospitals, and practitioners occupying our airwaves without the requisite licence and certification,” the paper quoted him as saying.

It is an undeniable fact that majority of Ghanaians, especially those in the rural areas, rely on traditional medicine anytime they fall sick. As a result of this development, thousands of traditional medical practitioners have emerged. They produce herbal medicines that can cure almost every ailment on planet Earth.

But unlike the orthodox medicine, these herbal preparations do not sometimes go through any scientific process before they are offloaded onto the market. It is upon the basis of this that medical doctors do not recognise these herbal medicines. The government itself might have noticed this shortcoming and,therefore, decided to enact the TMPC Act, 2000 to regulate the industry.

Regrettably, despite the existence of this Act, the Traditional Medicine Practice Council, which is to enforce the law, is now telling Ghanaians that majority of the herbal preparations on our market are not registered. This is a serious matter, but Dr Michael Kyeremateng in the interview he granted to Daily Graphic did not state the steps his outfit had taken to ensure sanity in the industry.

As a matter of fact, nowadays, immediately one tunes into a radio or television station, the first thing the person will hear or see is the advertisement of herbal medicines. These practitioners are so eloquent in their presentations in the local languages that one is tempted to buy the medicine being advertised, when the said herbal medicinesmight not have even been registered.

In our opinion, this is a serious national security issue that must not be toyed with. It is possible that thousands of Ghanaians are dying after they have taken these herbal preparations that have not been registered by any regulatory body.

It is true that our forefathers relied on traditional medicines before the Europeans introduced orthodox medicines to them, but the rate at which some of these traditional medicines are emerging on the market is alarming.

The Chronicle is, therefore, calling on the Traditional Medicine Practice Council to wake up from its slumber and start working. Whining without any concrete action, in our view, is meaningless.

They must work together with the radio and televisions to ensure that only registered traditional medicines are advertised on our airwaves. In this way, the Council will be protecting the lives of Ghanaians.

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