WHO Expert Committee on
traditional medicine meets in Brazzaville
Accra, Nov. 29, GNA - The 12-member World Health
Organization (WHO) Regional Expert Committee on
Traditional Medicine on Wednesday began a
four-day meeting in Brazzaville, republic of
Congo, to review and adopt documents developed
to complement other tools for facilitating the
institutionalization of traditional medicine in
the health systems of member states.
The first document, titled Strategic Framework
and Action Plan for Strengthening Capacities for
Local Production of Traditional Medicines,
focuses on activities that would lead to the
production of traditional medicines which are
compliant with good manufacturing practices.
A statement from the WHO received in Accra said
participants would also review Regulatory
Framework for the Protection and Promotion of
Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge in Africa.
The document provides guidelines for use in the
formulation and implementation of national
policies and legislations for the protection of
intellectual property rights.
The third document, Traditional Medicine
Information Kit for Consumers, is meant to
ensure that various stakeholders are
appropriately informed and well sensitized about
the role of traditional medicine in health care.
Opening the meeting, WHO Regional Director for
Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo, expressed satisfaction
with the fact that some of the tools and
guidelines adopted by the expert committee since
its inception five years ago had been adapted by
several countries in the region.
He stated that as of November 2006, the tools
had been adapted by 14 countries to develop
national policies on traditional medicine.
Twelve countries had developed legal frameworks
for the practice of traditional medicine, 13
countries had develop codes of ethics, and eight
for developing strategic plans.
The Regional Director's statement was read on
his behalf by the Director of the Division of
Healthy Environments and Sustainable Development
at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, Dr Chris
Mwikissa.
Dr Sambo also spoke of "encouraging results"
from the use of tools adopted by the expert
committee in the development of traditional
medicine in Africa.
He illustrated progress made with the
standardization and patenting of traditional
medicines for the management of HIV/AIDS in
Zimbabwe; the issue of market authorizations for
medicines used for the management of malaria,
hypertension, sickle cell anaemia in Nigeria and
for diabetes mellitus in Madagascar. Similar
marketing authorizations have been issued for
seven medicines in Burkina Faso.
"The main challenge now is to conduct
large-scale randomized trials which require
substantial financial resources. Therefore,
countries, WHO and development partners need to
continue mobilizing additional resources that
are needed to validate the safety, efficacy and
quality of traditional medicines-evidence that
is needed for integration into health systems."
The Regional Expert Committee on traditional
Medicine was established in May 2001 in response
to Regional Committee Resolution AFR/RC/50/R3
requesting the Regional Director to establish a
regional mechanism to support the monitoring and
evaluation of the progress made in the
implementation of the Regional Strategy on
Promoting the Role of traditional Medicine in
Health Systems.
The 12-member committee comprises Dr Regina
Badet (Benin), Prof. Jean-Baptiste Nikiema
(Burkina Faso), Prof. On'okoko Penge (Democratic
Republic of Congo), Prof. Marian Ewurama Addy
(Ghana), Dr Jack Gitahte (Kenya), Prof. Drissa
Diallo (Mali) and Prof. Adelaide Bela Agostinho
(Mozambique).
The rest are Dr Donna Kabatesi (Uganda), Dr
Motlalepula Matsabisa (South Africa), Dr Paul
Mhame (Tanzania), Dr Mamadou Diallo of the
African Union and Dr Xiaorui Zhang, Coordinator
of the Traditional Medicine programme at WHO
Headquarters in Geneva.
GNA
