Dr Anastasia Yirenkye, Dr Samuel Ato Duncan and Baffour Asabre Kogyawoasu cutting a cake to launch the food supplement in Kumasi
There must be a culture shift in medical research to accommodate traditional medicine in order to make healthcare delivery in the country more potent, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has stated.
He has, therefore, called on government to direct its attention toward traditional plant medicine research to support the country’s healthcare delivery system.
In a speech read on his behalf by his Nsumankwahene, Baffour Asabre Kogyawoasu II, at the launching of COA FS in Kumasi, the Asante King also appealed to government to encourage and promote the use of indigenous medicine in the country.
COA FS, a Food & Drugs Authority (FDA) approved herbal dietary food supplement, supports the human immune system to fight a variety of deadly diseases.
According to the Asantehene, since health is the wealth of the nation, it is imperative for government to subsidise drugs and food supplements to help improve the well-being of the citizens to accelerate productivity.
Otumfuo urged Ghanaians not to despise locally-made products of Ghanaian origin, while warning the nation against the high taste developed for foreign products, which, he mentioned, tend to destroy industrial establishments in the country.
He charged the youth to stay away from unhealthy lifestyles that would endanger the health or increase the risk factors to contracting diseases.
Dr Anastasia Yirenkye who deputised for the Minister of Health Alex Segbefia, indicated that the integration of traditional medicine into Ghanaian health care delivery had had positive impact, aside providing jobs for a great number of the country’s citizenry.
She said it was the hope of government to create traditional medicine centres in all district hospitals across the country now that the universities had begun to train more medical herbalist as part of the integration of traditional medicine into the mainstream health care system.
In her view, traditional medicine has gained nation and international recognition with various policies in place to ensure that quality healthcare services are delivered to Ghanaian.
She said that the advent of colonisation with its attending denigration of African tradition, value and religion relegated traditional medicine to the background following loss of knowledge.
“There is a new way in traditional medicine which gives some hope that all is not lost,” Dr Yirenkye asserted and continued that there existed knowledge of African philosophy to correct and improve on the traditional medicine.
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COA FS, Dr Samuel Ato Duncan, said the best way for Ghanaians to stay healthy was to maintain their immune system well.
“Immune system can be maintained by eating healthy food, having enough sleep or taking an approved dietary supplement to provide nutrients which are missing in the body,” he argued.
According to the originator of COA FS, lack of sleep, radiation, mal nutrition can reduce the strength of one’s immune system and which development could lead to contraction of diseases.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi