Trends and challenges towards integration of traditional medicine in formal health care system: Historical perspectives and An Appraisal of education curricula in Sub-Sahara Africa

2016-05-04T13-05-25Z
Source: Journal of Intercultural Ethnopharmacology
Ester Innocent.
The population residing Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) continues to suffer from communicable health problems such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, various Neglected Tropical as well as Non-Communicable Diseases. The disease burden is aggravated by shortage of medical personnel and medical supplies such as medicine and medical devices. Also, the population in most countries in this region still and has minimal access to essential medicine. For long time, human beings through observation and practical experiences learned to use different plant species that led to the emergence of traditional medicine (TM) systems. The ancient Pharaonic Egyptian traditional medicine system is one of the oldest documented form of traditional medicine practice in Africa and the pioneer of worlds medical science. However, the medical practices diffused very fast to other continents being accelerated by advancement of technologies while leaving Africa lagging behind in the integration of the practice in formal health care system. Challenging issues that drags back integration is the development of education curricula for training Traditional medicine experts as the way of disseminating the traditional medical knowledge and practices imbedded in African culture. The few African countries such as Ghana has managed to integrate TM products in the National Essential Medicine List while South Africa, Sierra Leone and Tanzania have traditional medicine products being sold over the counters due to availability of education training programs facilitated by research. This paper analyses the contribution of TM practice and products in modern medicine and gives recommendations that Africa should taken in the integration process in order to safeguard the Sub-Sahara Africa population from disease burdens


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