The National Council of Traditional Healers and Herbalists Associations have called on Government through the Ministry of Health to consider the enrichment of the medical curriculum and provide for the teaching of the use of herbal medicine in treatment of patients in Uganda.
While appearing before Parliament’s National Economy today to present their proposals on how the coronavirus has impacted on their businesses, Wilfred Ahimbisibwe, who led the team of herbalists, said that Government should provide capacity training to herbalists and enrich curriculum of current doctors.
“…they (medical doctors) are trained to view herbal medicine as something that isn’t true. There are a lot of herbalists and microbiologists and would like to carry out extensive research on herbal medicine but it hasn’t been invested in by Government,” Ahimbisibwe said.
The Association also asked Government to establish a standard laboratory to act as incubation centre to help the industry prepare itself for a future pandemic.
However, Reagan Okumu (Aswa County) protested claims that medical doctors have sidelined herbal medicine, saying doctors in Lacor hospital tend to refer some orthopedic cases to traditional healers in Gulu. Some MPs even attested to buying herbal drugs from pharmacies.
Syda Bbumba, Chairperson National Economy Committee informed the Association that although they are asking for funding from government as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Government has many competing needs and sectors that pay taxes tend to be looked at first.
On how COVID-19 has impacted their businesses, the Association revealed that most of the micro and small business owners experienced a larger decline in business activity due to their inability to implement preventive health measures such as provision of on-site lodging for employees, sanitizers and other health care safety equipment for customers and staff.
MP Okumu welcomed the idea of the University of Herbalists but said emphasis must be put on patenting their medicines and this would be possible by having scientist test these medicines.
“There is no way you can separate this from modern medicine. The way you are doing your thing, you might be taking other people’s secrets which might not be right. How can that be tested for my treatment and be accepted internationally? You must modify,” Okumu said.
“It must be tested, you can’t work alone. What is produced locally must be accepted internationally. You must take your medicine for test by another group. We are dying poor because we haven’t subjected our herbs to modern way of business,” he added.
