WHO helps develop policy on traditional medicine

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is helping to fund the development of a tradional medicine policy for the West African country of The Gambia. For the vast majority of Gambians, traditional medicine is the first treatment option, and the government has been working with healers on diseases like HIV/AIDS, diarrhoea, malaria and TB. "For most, it is the only source of hope for the management or treatment of some priority diseases such as HIV/AIDS and sickle-cell anaemia," a local newspaper, the Daily News, quoted health official Babicar Sillah as saying. Sillah added that the government was looking at a regulatory framework to incorporate traditional medicine within the context of current policies and legislation.