People Living with HIV Aids (PLWHA) in Africa are increasingly calling for an effective public health agenda that recognizes the potential for orthodox treatments to complement African traditional medicine systems.  

Such herbal and synthetic drug combinations are psycho-socially inevitable in Africa, a continent in which over 90 percent of its population frequently seeks treatment with traditional medicine. 

Having legislation in place would go a long way in providing control over the registration, training and practice of traditional health practitioners as well as creating much needed confidence among members of the public about consuming the services of traditional healers.

According to Prof. Tony Elujoba of the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, the adoption of African traditional medicine is long overdue given that personnel and materials are available in abundance on the continent.

Prof. Elujoba cautioned African governments to get serious about spearheading industrialization adding that it is wrong to allocate funds for industrialization and at the same time import medicine from other countries yet the continent has the potential for manufacturing its own medicines to treat ailments that are peculiar to its people. 

“Why import artemisinin annua-related medicine from China yet we have the resources to produce artemisinin annua in abundance?” he asks. 

Extracts from the plant are used to produce potent anti-malarial formulations and farmers in East and Southern Africa have ventured into small and medium scale production to tap into its economic potential. 

He says that with the abundance of garlic, an immune system stimulant, that also treats typhoid and fungal infections, it is possible to reduce incidences and severity of opportunistic infections in PLWHA brought on by HIV/AIDS to manageable levels. 

Prof. Elujoba, who is a pharmacology lecturer, says African governments must not fall behind the progressive actions of the World Health Organisation (WHO) which has recognized the potential of traditional African medicines. 

He calls on governments to assist local traditional healers by funding research into African traditional medicine. 

He reveals that with only 20 percent of people accessing Antiretroviral treatments  (ARVs) in the West African sub-region, the use of traditional medicine could bridge the treatment gaps especially with the emergence of disturbing evidence of growing resistance in the immune systems of PLWHA to first line ARVs. 

He proposes that African governments change their approach to funding by opting to concentrate on local funding arrangements as opposed to reliance on external donations, whose donors may not value the effectiveness of traditional African medicine. 

“The internal funding mechanisms such as Constituency Development Funds (CDF) that is widely used in Uganda and Kenya can effectively be used in funding traditional medicine research in African countries,” says Mr. Richard Agiso, the Director of  the Kisumu-based Centre for Initiatives in Herbalism and Bio-cultural Systems. 

Mr. Agiso notes that the refusal by international donor partners to fund traditional medicine research must be bridged by African governments. 

“Allocation of funds to various herbalists to research on their work will be of key importance to the local people, some of whom are poor and are unable to seek medical assistance from conventional health facilities,” Agiso adds. 

However, South Africa has made remarkable progress and is on the threshold of an Act of Parliament to guide the use of African traditional medicine. 

“The president has already signed the Traditional Health Practitioner’s Act and it now awaits a national policy on traditional medicine which is at final stages of development,” says Prof. Nceba Gqaleni of the University of Kwazulu Natal. 

He adds that the Act provides for the establishment of an interim Traditional Health Practitioners Council of South Africa, which will set out the regulatory framework to ensure efficacy, safety and quality of traditional health care services. 

The act will also facilitate registration and training of the 185,477 traditional healers in the country by ensuring that they offer quality service to their clients. 

Prof. Gqaleni observes that it was time traditional medicine practitioners and  healers were accepted on board adding that 70 percent of the people living with HIV/AIDS form part of the 80 percent South Africans who first use traditional medicine before consulting allopathic practitioners when problems persists. 

As the western world and donors continue to ignore African traditional medicines, raw medicinal plants in South Africa is currently is estimated to be worth more than R4bn ($0.5bn) and is one of the major service industries in the country.

Prof. Nqaleni says that it is necessary to remove unguided misinformation about traditional medical practitioners and also enable people from the west to objectively appreciate, appraise, and assess its merits and demerits.

“It is necessary to set up centres of excellence on clinical trials on traditional medicine in public health care centres where people consume traditional medicine,” he adds.

However, he calls for the involvement of patients when making decisions on integrating proven remedies into the health system.