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WHO helps develop policy on traditional medicine

    JOHANNESBURG

    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.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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