Traditional medicine practitioners call for regulatory instruments

The 13th African Traditional medicine day was commemorated last august 31, 2015.

Traditional medicine practitioners in Yaounde converged on the University of Yaounde 1, precisely at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to mark the importance of traditional medicines in Africa with a call on the government to put up a National Council of Traditional Healers in Cameroon as well as the regulation of the practice of traditional medicine through the enactment of laws which allow every citizen to make the free choice of his/her medicine.

Presiding over the day in Yaounde was the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Health, Alim Hayatou. It was an occasion for the Secretary of State to salute the importance of traditional medicine in the society while outlining the efforts made by the government to regulate the sector.

Celebrating under the theme “Regulations governing traditional medicine practitioners in the African Region,” a consultant in African Traditional Medicine, Ngam-Fon Fai Fominyen Ngu Edward, speaking on behalf of traditional healers in Cameroon said after a century of independence, it is inadmissible that traditional medicine, which drains almost all of the health problems amongst the African continent, does not benefit from legal recognition in Cameroon just like in other countries.

Traditional healers called on the introduction of modern medicine and healer’s practices into formal education system at various levels, a collaborative partnership based on mutual trust and mutual respect of both systems as well as the judicious introduction of traditional medicine in the national health systems of Cameroon.