Trends and Challenges of Traditional Medicine in Africa

Abdullahi, Auwal

doi:10.4314/ajtcam.v8i5s.5

Cited by 315 publications

(260 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The WHO estimates that about 60% of the world's people uses herbal medicine for treating their sicknesses and up to 80% of the population living in the African region depends on TM for some aspects of primary health care (WHO, 2001;WHO, 2005). Indeed, in rural communities in developing countries and elsewhere, traditional medicine will continue to remain a vital and permanent part of the people's own health care system (Abdullahi , 2011;Gyasi , 2011).…”

Section: Th In Primary Health Care/disease Preventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the role of African traditional medicine in the management of oral diseases

Agbor¹,

Naidoo²

2016

Afr. J. Trad. Compl. Alt. Med.

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Background: Poverty, inadequacy of health services, shortage of health workers, infectious diseases scourges, rampant shortage of drugs and equipment in existing health facilities make traditional medicine an important component of healthcare in Africa, especially in oral health care. This review was done to document the role of African traditional medicine in oral health care delivery in order to provide a comprehensive documentation, identify research gaps, and suggest perspectives for future research. Materials and Methods: Available references or reports in English and French on the use of African traditional medicine in oral health care were consulted from published scientific journals, books, reports from national, regional and international organizations, theses, conference papers and other grey materials. Literature was searched on international online databases such as Pubmed, MEDLINE, Science Direct, Scopus and Google using the MeSH words "Traditional medicine or healer", "oral health", "dental caries", "dental", "primary oral health care' and "medicinal plants". Results: Contemporary African communities operate a pluralistic health system whereby highly sophisticated biomedical health care co-exists and even competes with traditional medical practices. Though most patients opt for dual consultations, the introduction of biomedicine has never replaced traditional indigenous medicine and traditional healers are consulted for several reasons making dual treatment a common occurrence in many communities. Factors such as the lack of health care workers, inequalities in the health sector due to socio-cultural and socio-economic disparities prevent people from patronising both health care systems. Therapeutic methods used by African traditional healers include herbalism, psychotherapy, simple surgical procedures, rituals and symbolism. The types of medications used by traditional healers were classified as preventive and prophylactic medications. Some practices of traditional healers included tooth extractions with medicinal plants and also in other practices resulting in exposure to blood; practices involving the use of shared instruments had been reported to be responsible for the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Other harmful practices include gemectomy, uvulectomy and different forms of infant oral mutilations. Conclusion: Traditional healers provide dental care, but their work was not integrated with that of a dentist. Traditional healers have special qualities that make them highly effective in primary oral health care therefore making them inevitable stakeholders in primary oral health care delivery. The research gaps in this review include the integration of traditional medicine into the oral health care systems of many African countries and the evaluation of the treatment outcomes of traditional medicine in dental care.

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Section: Th In Primary Health Care/disease Preventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the role of African traditional medicine in the management of oral diseases

Agbor¹,

Naidoo²

2016

Afr. J. Trad. Compl. Alt. Med.

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“…No tiene bases científicas 52 (14,8) 23 (6,6) No está reconocida legalmente 37 (10,5) 59 (16,8) Tiene efectos adversos 3 (0,9) 6 (1,7)…”

Section: No Aceptaciónunclassified

“…Aceptación Se puede integrar a la medicina convencional 72 (20,5) 105 (29,9) Es más natural 185 (52,7) 119 (33,9)…”

Section: No Aceptaciónunclassified

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Conocimiento, aceptación y uso de medicina tradicional peruana y de medicina alternativa/complementaria en usuarios de consulta externa en Lima Metropolitana

Gálvez

et al. 2017

Rev. per. med. integr.

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ResumenObjetivo. Determinar los conocimientos, aceptación y uso de la medicina tradicional peruana y la medicina alternativa/complementaria en usuarios de consulta externa de en establecimientos de salud de Lima Metropolitana. Materiales y métodos. Se realizó una encuesta validada en 351 usuarios de consulta externa de ocho establecimientos de salud pertenecientes al Ministerio de Salud (MINSA) y Seguro Social de Salud (EsSalud) donde se evaluaron los patrones de uso, conocimiento y aceptación de terapias de medicina tradicional peruana (MTC) y medicina complementaria/alternativa (MAC). Resultados. La terapia de MTP más conocida, aceptada y usada fue la pasada de huevo (71,5%, 67,5% y 58,1%) mientras que en el caso de las terapias de MAC fue la fitoterapia (63,8%, 72,1% y 59,5%). La MTP, mayormente, fue usada solo 1-2 veces y un 29,6% refirió el uso de MAC, como la fitoterapia, en todos sus episodios de enfermedad. La razón más frecuente de aceptación es la "integración a la medicina convencional" (20,5% en MTP y 29,9% en MAC) y las de no aceptación fueron el no tener bases científicas (14,8% en MTP) o no estar reconocida legalmente (29,9% en MAC). Conclusión. La terapia de MTP más conocida, aceptada y usada fue la pasada de huevo, mientras que en el caso de MAC fue la fitoterapia. Las terapias de MTP suelen ser menos usadas que las terapias MAC por los encuestados. Estos procedimientos suelen ser realizados en el domicilio del paciente y son aceptados por la posibilidad de integración con la medicina convencional.

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“…As illustrated above from the history of pharmacy in England, most European countries enacted legislation to place the trade of medicines in the hand of pharmacists and medical doctors; though informal trading continued unabated due to the lucrative nature of the trade, the loopholes in legislations and the recognition that herbal medicine practice was vested with some people through heredity and initiation but not academic training [22][23][24][25].…”

Section: Trading Of Medicines By Non-licensed Entities and Non-profesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks Associated with International Trading of Medicines by Non-Licensed Entities and Non-Professionals

Malangu¹

2017

International Trade - On the Brink of Change

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The making, distribution and trading of medicines can be traced back as far as antiquity. When talking about trading, sale or dispensing of medicines, it is almost impossible to separate this topic with the profession of pharmacy or pharmacists. Although most countries introduced legislations that put the trading of medicines largely in the hand of licensed businesses and professionals mainly pharmacists, informal and international trading of medicines and related substances has continued to be practiced in almost all countries due to loopholes in legislations among other reasons. This chapter highlights the risks associated with the trading of medicines by unlicensed organisations and non-professionals. These risks include the production and sale of counterfeit medicines, encouraging abuse and misuse of medicines, anti-competitive behaviour and so on. The major indings are that concessions made to allow non-licensed businesses and nonprofessionals to trade in medicines have resulted in several consequences that are threatening the whole world. It is this realisation that has prompted the recommendation that courage from decision makers is required for them to take a stand and hand over back the trading of medicines irmly in the hands of licensed professionals while outlawing loopholes that sustained the trade of medicines by unlicensed entities and non-professionals.Keywords: informal, illegal, trade, medicines, non-licensed, non-professional IntroductionThe making, distribution and trading of medicines can be traced back as far as antiquity. The making, production or manufacturing of medicines, mixtures, admixtures and other dosages forms have been performed over the years by a wide categories of people including lay peo- ple, priests, herbalists, traditional healers, midwives, medical doctors, nurses and pharmacists. As elaborated below, the practice of the art of healing was based on Arab, Egyptian, Greek and Roman texts, particularly those of Hippocrates, Aristotle, Dioscorides, Galen and others. The making of medicines was the domain of monasteries and local healers as medical training was not formalised then. The formal training and development of preparation techniques of medicinal mixtures based on standardised processes of harvesting, drying and distillation led to the abandonment of the old-fashioned herbal preparations practices by lay people who fell out of favour with the professionalization of the healing/medical community. But the distribution, sale as well as the local and international trade of medicines have been performed, in addition, by licensed and non-licensed people and businesses. This paper aims to describe and report on the risks associated with the trading of medicines by non-licensed business entities and non-professionals. In doing so, the paper elaborates on the reasons why international trade is prone to being conducted by unlicensed businesses and non-professionals, as well as on the sources of medicines traded.In order to accomplish the above, the literature search, wit...

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Trends and Challenges of Traditional Medicine in Africa

Cited by 315 publications

References 26 publications

A review of the role of African traditional medicine in the management of oral diseases

A review of the role of African traditional medicine in the management of oral diseases

Conocimiento, aceptación y uso de medicina tradicional peruana y de medicina alternativa/complementaria en usuarios de consulta externa en Lima Metropolitana

Risks Associated with International Trading of Medicines by Non-Licensed Entities and Non-Professionals

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