New policy on traditional health workers

The Ugandan government is to mainstream traditional and herbal healers within its general health sector by developing a policy, legal and regulatory framework for them within the existing national policies and health legislation, government officials said. According to the officials, almost two thirds of the country's 24 million people use traditional practitioners, including herbalists, spiritual healers, bone setters, hydrotherapists, traditional dentists and traditional midwives. But some of the healers are accused of harmful practices the government thinks can only be controlled if the practitioners themselves are controlled. "We are trying to introduce referral systems in the traditional healing system and work on intellectual property rights of traditional healers on herbs they develop," Grace Nambatya, the head of the Ugandan government natural chemotherapeutics research laboratory, told IRIN on Tuesday. The laboratory provides clinical evaluation of herbs and other natural medicaments. Nambatya said the medical school at Makerere University was already developing a curriculum to introduce medical students to herbal treatment in their first year of study. "Herbal research, where traditional healers play a lead role, has already registered a degree of success especially in the treatment of the country's main killer, malaria," she told IRIN. Nambatya, who holds a PhD in medical research, has started her own clinic, Pesso Health Care Centre, which she says bridges modern medicine and herbal treatment, at her parents' home in Masaka, some 120 km southwest of Kampala. In the capital, Kampala, another medical facility, Moringa Health Services, offers treatment exclusively with herbal medicine for a number of ailments. Another organisation, Traditional and Modern Health Practitioners Together against Aids and Other Diseases (THETA), is involved in a clinical study involving traditional healers to evaluate the effectiveness of local herbal treatment for selected HIV/AIDS-related diseases. Studies by THETA had so far showed significant clinical improvement in herpes zoster (shingles) and chronic diarrhoea patients on herbal treatment, comparable to and in some instances better than those on available modern medicines, Nambatya said. The Ugandan government registers traditional healers in order to monitor their activities and coordinate their work. According to Nambatya, an estimated 20,000 healers are currently registered. Other estimates, however, suggest the presence of some 150,000 healers, mainly in the rural areas. Uganda's Health Minister, Jim Muhwezi, said last week the Ugandan government recognised the work of traditional practitioners as partners in health care delivery.