There is a common saying among health experts that, ‘’ Health is wealth’’ and without favourable health facilities, a country will not develop and its citizens will suffer gravely in terms of accessing professional medical care. This factor is not unusual in Sierra Leone, where they neglect our traditional medicines is now common place.
Importantly, for quite a long time, traditional medicines are one of the remedies people use to cure patients. Today, most people, including government offcials prefer drugs manufactured abroad to that traditional medicines.
Majority of Sierra Leoneans are aware of the fact that traditional medicines is an integral part of our cultural heritage; therefore our citizens should promote traditional healers to contribute to the socio-economic development of the nation, especially the health sector.
Moreover, it could be recalled that during World Health conferences, health experts always recognize and emphasise the role of traditional medicines and its practitioners worldwide. They always recommend to national governments to use all health personnel, including traditional health practitioners for the attainment of health for all.
Sierra Leone is a country endowed with rich flora and fauna with medicinal value and there are good numbers of traditional healers all over the country. Infact, there is a traditional healers’ organization known as the Sierra Leone Traditional Healers’ Association (slentha),which was established in 1992.
Furthermore, there are other traditional healers associations in other parts of Africa. In Mali, for example, they have both traditional healers’ association and a university for traditional medicines with equipped laboratories. They even manufacture traditional medicines in their laboratories in collaboration with traditional healers. Their laboratories are well- organized with huge fundings from their government and other international financial institutions.
On the other hand, in Sierra Leone, the production of traditional medicines is not well-structured and regulated to allow the masses to derive the full benefits from local herbs.
According to a senior health officer and also a member of SLENTHA who prefer not to be mentioned, said that traditional medicines productions have not been subjected to the assessment of quality, safety, efficacy and affordability to guarantee rational use.
In addition, a former Minister of Health and Sanitation, Mrs. Abator Thomas, on her preface statement, on the National Policy on Traditional Medicines of 2007 once said: “The issues of conservation, cultivation and preservation of the medicines plants of Sierra Leone need to be considered; along with the protection of the intellectual property rights and the benefits sharing that may arise from the use of traditional medicinal knowledge”.The National Policy on Traditional Medicine outlines the policies and key strategies that will ensure the development and appropriate utilization and regulation of traditional medicines, including the preservation and protection of our flora and fauna with the potential for use as medicines.
The policy, however, also highlights the development and enforcement of a Traditional Medicines Act and Code of Ethnics and Standard of practice.
The policy offers opportunity to all stakeholders, the public, private, international and non governmental organizations to collaborate with the government to advance traditional medicines practices in the country for the benefit of all.
The above policy is welcomed news for both traditional healers and the people of this country. But the million dollar question Sierra Leoneans may ask is: how serious will the government fast- tract the process of passing the bill into law. Officials of the Health Ministry and other stakeholders have done a marvelous work by complying this document and the Bill and Code of Ethnics and Standards for Traditional Health Practitioners; the authorities should now implement these policies in the country.
The government should place top priority on this policy, so that the specialities of traditional healers are recognized in our society. In this regard, the United Nations agencies, as well as the African Union, have also stressed the importance of traditional medicines to health care outlets in the African regions. In fact, the African Union has declared the years 2000-2010 as the “decade for traditional medicines in Africa”. These demonstrate the level of importance attached to traditional healers in the development of any nation, especially the health sector.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), they define traditional medicine thus: “the sum total of knowledge and practices, whether explicable or not, used in diagnosing, preventing or eliminating a physical, mental or social imbalance and relying on practitioner experience and observations handed down from generation to generation, whether verbally or in writing”.
The WHO document on “promoting the role of traditional medicines in health systems: ‘’ A strategy for the African region, indicates that 80% of African’s six hundred and fifty million people use traditional medicines for daily health care. The same document explaines that more than 70% of all births in Africa use traditional medicines to treat pregnant women or are carried out by Traditional Birth Attendants.’’
In Sierra Leone, like other countries in Africa, our country has abundance knowledge and material resources that could be used to manage the majority of illnesses, particularly at the primary health level.
According to the 2007 National Policy on Traditional Medicines, it is estimated that there are about twenty thousand traditional health practitioners of different categories, some of whom, are members of the Sierra Leone Traditional Healers’ Association (SLENTHA) established in 1992.
Therefore, the Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone, which is responsible for the regulation of traditional medicines in accordance with the Pharmacy and Drugs act of 2001, should give a free hand to traditional healers’ to execute their duties.
It is also reported that the regulatory mechanism for the practice of traditional health practitioners has not been in place. And also commercial production of traditional medicines preparation is not yet developed. Therefore, there is a need for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to work out modalities for these regulations to be stipulated, so that traditional healers will work hand in glove with the medicial practitioners in the country.
This article is a piece of advice to the government and medical pratitioners to encourage and bring traditional healers on board to meet the Millennium Development Goals on health for all.
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