Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
GOVERNMENT is in the process of mainstreaming usage of traditional medicines as a drug import substitution measure and has allocated $100 million towards research into the field.

Traditional healers will also be trained on how to secure intellectual rights.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care has recommended that Government’s lands department by year end allocates land which will be used to cultivate traditional medical herbs for research.

Vice-President and Health and Child Care Minister Dr Constantino Chiwenga said there is need to standardise administration of traditional medicine in the country.

He said while there is widespread use of traditional medicines in the country, there is no coordination in the practice.

For instance, the emergence of Covid-19 saw many Zimbabweans adopting traditional herbs for treatment, although scientifically these measures are not approved.

Speaking in the National Assembly last Wednesday while responding to a report presented by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care on the development and promotion of traditional and complementary medicines in Zimbabwe, he said there is need for research on traditional herbs. VP Chiwenga said his Ministry has taken note of the observations made by the Health and Child Care Parliamentary Portfolio Committee that while usage of traditional medicine is common in the country, the exercise is largely shrouded in mystery.

“In this regard, the Ministry of Health and Child Care will take the following specific actions to the recommendations made by the committee; the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development should consider timeous release of funds allocated to the Traditional and Complementary Medicines in the 2022 National Budget, to enable more research and development in the field. The Ministry will engage the relevant Ministry to ensure the development of adequate funding for traditional and complementary medicines,” said VP Chiwenga.

“During 2021, my Ministry will request the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to release the allocated budget for 2021. In the current budget, the vote for traditional medicines has been allocated 100 million but the challenge has been on disbursements which have been slow.”

His ministry also recommended that the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement should consider allocating land for the cultivation of herbs for medicine end of this year.

“The Ministry of Health and Child Care in conjunction with the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement will facilitate commercial production of identified priority herbs in line with pharmaceutical strategy, industrialisation strategy and import substitution. However, Public Private Partnerships will be engaged to ensure that more cultivation and production of herbal material is done,” he said.

The Vice-President said learning institutions should also come up with education curricula that demystifies use of traditional medicine in the country.

VP Chiwenga said there is also a need to professionalise the traditional medicine practice sector.

“The Ministry of Health and Child Care should ensure that traditional medicine practices have access to laboratories, are trained to read, have medical insurance, and are able to use modern medical instruments such as BP machines as their counterparts in the conventional medical fields by August 2022,” said VP Chiwenga.

He said there is a need for a paradigm shift among traditional medicine practitioners as they have to be nationalistic in thinking as opposed to being individualistic as is the case so far.

VP Chiwenga said Government will undertake to train traditional medicine practitioners on how they can benefit from intellectual and property rights.

“Ministry of Health and Child Care should start training and educating traditional medicine practitioners to move from individualism and non-disclosure to nationalisation and property rights if Zimbabwe is to bring about total development in the traditional and complementary medicine sector within the first quarter of 2022,” said VP Chiwenga.

“The Ministry of Health and Child Care together with the Medicine Control Authority of Zimbabwe and the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe have started sensitising meetings with the traditional medicines practitioners on guidelines for traditional medicine research and intellectual property rights. Furthermore, the Ministry of Health and Child Care in consultation with stakeholders, have developed a standard Memorandum of Agreement document that can be used by traditional medicine practices and researchers to prevent misappropriation of intellectual rights.” — @nqotshili