By James Achanyi-Fontem
The Ministry of Public Health has presented the framework for the rehabilitation of traditional medicine in Cameroon. The frame work includes a draft law project organizing traditional medicine practice, a code of ethics for traditional healers, a national strategic plan of development and integration of traditional medicine and the creation of a national consultative committee.
The decision of the government aims at getting traditional medicine out of the informal sector, within the frame work of the World Health Organisation, WHO, prescriptions and preoccupation. Though the place occupied by traditional medicine in Cameroon is acknowledged and respected, a number of problems in the exercise of the profession have been registered by authorities of the ministry of public health.
The first big problem is to identify who is who in the profession, because just anyone declares him or her a traditional healer, including dealers in concoctions of backs of trees or leaves. There are so many charlatans in the big cities and villages. In very distant villages in Cameroon, persons have been identified to treat certain illnesses without a lot of publicity, but these persons are not registered or known at the level of the ministry of public health. Statistics show that approximately 80% of the population use traditional healing methods to improve on their health situation when they fall sick, especially in cases where modern medicine has failed. Another reason; why people are attracted by the use of traditional medicine is its cheapness than treatment in modern health settings, though its limits are well known to constitute obstacles to its development because of the lack of any norms, the posology, and dosage of the different abstracts by the traditional healers. The ministry took the decision to rehabilitate traditional medicine because several cases have been treated after failure by modern medicine to improve on the health of individuals.
On the other hand, some traditional healers also refer patients to the hospitals and reference hospitals. The aim of the government is to get the two healing methods closer for more treatment results. To regulate the situation, the authorities of the ministry of public health would have to make use of existing association and syndicates of traditional healers to control and supervise the practice of the profession. Doctor Martin Ekeke Monono, Director of Health Care Organisation and Health Technology at the ministry of public health addressing the press observed that regulating traditional medicine dates as far back as the 1970s. He explained the process by saying that various commissions worked on the topic and produced documents and texts, but it was difficult to get things finalised, because the sector itself was disorganised.
In-house fighting between the traditional healers and practitioners made it difficult to get credible partners within the community, who could assist in building the official texts to regulate the sector. Within the last four years, a lot of efforts have been made to put some order amongst the traditional healers and practitioners through the different associations. The associations adopted a code of conduct and ethics and this got the ministry of public health to bring the different presidents of the associations together under an umbrella association that helped to establish the platform. This has helped the ministry of public health to approach the different actors for discussions. It is now government policy to regulate all activities that have to do with the health of people.
Traditional medicine is as old as humanity and it is rooted in the different cultures. But we all now understand that some aspects of traditional medicine do not suit this modern era and certain forms of practices condoned in the past are no longer accepted today. The change will start with the halt of the current wide spread advertising of traditional drugs on the media. The phenomenon led to persons abandoning their villages for the big cities, where they set traditional healing shops and never formally declared their existence to the government authorities. These persons made issues complicated and the government through the ministry of public health had to regulate the sector. In a normal situation, a traditional healer is not expected to operate more than one pharmacy or healing home.
Even in conventional medicine, a pharmacist is allowed to open only one pharmacy. Regulation of the sector will open new channels of collaboration between traditional and modern medicine. One important area will be the early reference of patients from centres of traditional healing to the hospitals. It has been observed that many patients arrive at the hospitals only when their situations have become helpless, just because they were on traditional treatment for very long periods. On the other hand, these traditional healers should be honest enough to declare what they can treat. This would be another way of developing medicinal plants effectively, because the traditional healers really master the products of nature and have a lot of traditional knowledge that could be shared. Traditional healers and modern doctors can collaborate at the clinical level by establishing the effectiveness of medicinal plants, which would lead to the identification scientifically of the active ingredients found in the different plants that surround us.
For the government to succeed, the traditional healer has to start by regulating their sector themselves, because they have a role of respecting healing ethics from the professional point. The leaders of the different associations are better placed to identify those who are charlatans amongst them. The ministry of public health will help them to regulate their sector and safe the lives of citizens. The main problem faced by the administration actually, is the fact that the traditional healers and practitioners are not cooperative. There are so many quacks in the field. Another major problem is the education of all the traditional healers throughout Cameroon for them to understand the need to have their profession regulated. To begin with, most the traditional healers in Cameroon are illiterate persons with very limited scoop of understanding issues.
Education the traditional healers may take a very long time, but it is necessary to start and those who will understand, would be better placed to help others change their ways of practicing the profession. The government has taken the first step to regulate the sector and change will come after several years. For now the strategic plan has a target for 2015 to improve on health care delivery.
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