A screaming headline in a local newspaper last Saturday was about the danger posed by herbal medicine.
Although a truism, the warning like others before it, has not received the necessary action that would change attitudes towards this non-consulting room option of treating ailments.
The headline could not have screamed louder than it did being a subject which has long remained a fact of life in our country.
Dr. Adam Atiku of the Tamale Teaching Hospital’s concern about the unbridled use of herbal medicine for the treatment of a wide spectrum of ailments in the country should go beyond the pages of a newspaper.
The herbal medicine alternative is an option many would defend by all means, regardless of the scientific findings.
We have heard about the rising cases of renal ailments even in pediatrics, a situation which some experts attribute to the abuse of herbal medicine.
There are as many people who would oppose herbal medicine as those who would defend it.
The existence of a state operated research centre into plant medicine is one approach towards refining the use of herbal medicine. Unfortunately, not all our herbal medicine producers send their products for the necessary certification at these agencies.
We think that such calls, as originating from the Dr. Akilu, are too feeble to be of any impactful value. It is a warning which only goes to the educated persons who follow the media, not so those who hardly know what goes on around them.
We would like to suggest that the relevant stakeholders reach out to the identifiable publics and herbalists with a view to encouraging them to send their samples for testing. Even the Pharmacy Faculty of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology are primed to test our herbal products yet many do not know about its existence.
Those who patronise such herbal products should be urged to look out for marks of certification from relevant state agencies charged with such tasks.
The abuse of herbal and even orthodox medicines is posing grave danger to lives and said to be responsible for the rising incidents of renal and other ailments in society.
We do not need to be told about the dangers posed by drinking concoctions without prescribed dosages and even knowing their counter indications on the body.
Until something drastic is adopted, the patronage of herbal medicine from which some have found cure for their ailments anyway, the call to avoid those of them especially not certified, will be drowned in the sea of ignorance.
Some herbal products have been found to be effective. These have been certified but their efficacy notwithstanding self-medication and avoiding the consulting room is not advisable.
Dangerous antibiotics alongside herbal medicine for ‘kookoo’ will continue to be sold at our lorry stations and other public places even when the National Health Insurance Scheme is supported to bring healthcare delivery to the doorstep of the vulnerable but poor.