The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
OVER the past few months, Zimbabwe has been experiencing a number of problems in the health sector ranging from inadequate supply of drugs, their high cost, to issues related to general personnel welfare and that has somehow hamstrung the country’s health delivery system.
And because of the myriad of problems people often talk of the current situation as a time not to get ill. But sickness just comes uninvited and when it does, very rare would people ignore it, it forces people to panic and run around looking for solutions.
The problems that the country is experiencing in so far as supply of drugs and their cost, however, presents a perfect opportunity for the Government and other stakeholders to promote the use of traditional medicine which has been pushed to the periphery by conventional drugs.
But prior to the advent of science and research that birthed conventional drugs that people so much rely on, large numbers of African families (both rural and urban) used traditional medicine for their health care, much so because it is accessible, affordable, culturally appropriate and acceptable.
The feeling in Government is that although the use of traditional herbs and medicine remains a personal option, there is a need for heightened effort in conscientising the communities that traditional medicine is not demonic as otherwise portrayed by some church beliefs.
“The Government recognises the use of traditional herbs in health care systems. We have been conscientising the country’s communities but of course its use is underpinned by people’s belief systems and orientation that determines acceptability. Otherwise a lot of homes in the country are aware of the herbs and traditional medicines and what they can cure. We have therefore made efforts of ensuring that there is harmony between health care service providers by educating people that traditional medicine is not evil or demonic as taught by some churches. They are biblical,” said acting director Traditional Medicine in the Ministry of Health and Child, Care Mr Onias Ndoro.
He said they were working with other stakeholders in lobbying for more to be done to promote appropriate use of traditional medicine and to fit its use in the country’s health vision.
Mr Ndoro said the reason why traditional medicine survived to this day was that it had been effective.
Renowned herbalist and director of Musimboti Traditional Science and Technology Institute Mr Morgan Zimunya said it is folly for anyone to claim that herbs and traditional medicine do not work when populations in countries like India and China that are relied upon in medicine are known power houses of traditional medicine.
He says in Zimbabwe research has shown that more than 80 percent of pregnant mothers have their primary health care techniques rooted in the use of traditional medicine and urged harmonisation of the practice between traditional and conventional practitioners for the good of the country’s health sector.
He said traditional medicine was holistic and culturally accepted adding that the bulk of African families rely on it for primary health care especially in pre and post natal health care.
“Traditional medicine has been in use since time immemorial. To this day 80 percent of pregnant mothers in Zimbabwe rely on it one way or the other. In any community traditional medicine forms the first line of health care as it is used at the first stages of illness.
“So to me as to any African, the question as to the effectiveness of traditional medicine is not only unAfrican but absurd because that is what exactly has been relied on before the advent of conventional medicine. So you find that every community has its belief system, known herbalists and their specialty areas,” said Mr Zimunya.
He added that some of his herbs were sought after even by Western countries that were initially in the forefront of discrediting traditional medicine.
Mr Zimunya echoed Mr Ndoro’s sentiments that traditional medicine was not demonic, saying churches that were teaching that were creating the stigma with most members seeking help for their problems under the cover of darkness for fear of reprisals at church.
“Traditional medicine practitioners and herbalists, apart from being readily available and issues of affordability explain illness in terms that are familiar because they are part of the local belief systems. The practitioner and the patient are culturally bound, and the practitioner has a personal interest and stake in the patient, who may be a relative, a relative of a friend or a neighbour who they may want to come back or to refer other people as well. Health problems are based on the notion that each cultural group handles its medical problems in a particular way, with its own world-view, traditions, values and institutions. Traditional medicine is part of culture, which itself is always getting modified with time,” he said.
Mr Zimunya applauded the Government for its efforts in ensuring the practice was registered and regulated if one decides to go commercial.
Mr Zimunya said traditional medicine could treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs), genital warts, snake bites and many other diseases and was a lot more different from tsikamutandas and those that prescribe luck, money or business charms. From the wide range of herbs he produces and packages pills, cough mixtures, eye drops, tea leaves, ointments and other medications which help the body to keep fit.
He said they were growing their products on farms and even outgrowing for a constant supply of the herbal raw materials and to avoid depleting the natural forests.
Mr Ndoro, however, said the biggest challenge is that unlike Western medical practitioners who acquire the basic skills through an intensive and selective education, specialising in related medical disciplines, African traditional medical practitioners acquire their skills through observation and a long and tedious apprenticeship involving intervention of ethno-socio-curricula activities that are not backed by science.
“We appreciate that traditional medical practices and their underlying beliefs are repositories of empirical observations and insights accumulated over long periods of practical experience. This wealth of information must be harmonised through newer experiences and knowledge, as more sophisticated analytical methods and technologies become available.
“With appropriate appreciation of the empirically-identified maladies of the folklore, many of the ancient herbal cures have provided leads and have found rigorous scientific basis in the form of some modern medicines such as aspirin,” he said.
He added that culturally, people believed in the old while looking forward to the modern.
“It is therefore logical to incorporate use of traditional medical dimensions in Western medicine, and vice versa, and establish a dialogue between them for the betterment of both practices and the community,” he posited.
Mr Ndoro said strides have to be made to ensure that the country does not become a consumer but a producer of herbal medicine because the country had an abundance of raw materials.
“The barrier between Western medicine and traditional medicine on the African continent might appear insurmountable, but that is due to the way Western medicine was introduced to Africa by colonial governments. African traditional medicine was suppressed and then ignored,” added Mr Ndoro.
Traditional Medicine Practitioners Council Registrar Ms Joice Guhwa said there was a need to create a platform for integration without segregation where Government would craft a policy that allows a patient to take traditional medicine while in hospital. Currently the policy disallows that.
She said it was also important for those in traditional practitioners to consider undergoing trainings on various diseases so that they know the common signs and symptoms to avoid diagnosing failures that would lead to wrong medication.
“There are diseases that traditional medicine can cure but there has been no holistic guidance from the Government to make traditional medicine an alternative to conventional medicine. I believe more needs to be done in that area and the potential is there. We should pluck a leaf from such countries as China and the Government has to take the initiative,” she said.
Concerning the diseases that are incurable through both Western medicine and traditional medicine, she said solutions might come through co-operation between the two systems. She was, however, quick to point out that a hindrance to such co-operation was the lack of trust on the part of the traditional medical practitioners who fear that all benefits would go to Western medicine while they would not gain much. Ms Guhwa said dispelling such fears would advance the cause for collaboration adding that the Government should provide financial support to promote the potential role of traditional medicine in primary health care.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recognises the use of traditional medicines under the Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014–2023 that was developed and launched in response to the World Health Assembly resolution on traditional medicine.
The strategy aims to support Member States in developing proactive policies and implementing action plans that will strengthen the role traditional medicine plays in keeping populations healthy.
It also seeks to respond to the needs identified by Member States and building on the work done under the WHO traditional medicine strategy: 2002–2005, the updated strategy for the period 2014–2023 that devotes more attention than its predecessor to prioritising health services and systems, including traditional and complementary medicine products, practices and practitioners.
