The Lagos State Traditional Medicine Board, LSTMB, has said that plans are being perfected by the agency to bring its services closer to practitioners living in different parts of the State.
The Registrar of the Board, Mr. Olorunkemi Kadiku, who made this disclosure during a Lagos Traffic Radio programme, tagged “Your Side Mirror”, noted the difficulties faced by some of the practitioners who live in the hinterland, especially in places like Epe and Badagry, informed the decision to replicate the agency’s offices to save practitioners from visiting the Head Office of the Agency at Onikan Lagos every time the need arises.
Speaking on efforts by traditional medicine practitioners to find solutions to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the Registrar advocated the need for home-grown solutions to the virus considering its affordability and indigenous nature.
According to him, the cost of importing vaccines when compared with the cost of developing home-based solutions is just worlds apart saying, “As potent as vaccines are, the cost, when compared with home-based solutions, is far expensive than the cost of developing domesticated solutions here in Africa”.
He disclosed that LSTMB has already developed a herbal mixture which has been enlisted for clinical trial by NAFDAC as a possible cure for COVID-19 positive cases, adding that the mixture had gone through the Ethics Committee for approval.
Noting that until NAFDAC confirms its potency, based on scientific evidence to prove its efficacy, the herbs cannot be made available for consumption, the Registrar stated that the Board is only waiting for NAFDAC to make its position on the mixture known.
Kadiku allayed fears of unhealthy rivalry between medical doctors and traditional practitioners, stating that Lagos has maintained synergy between orthodox and unorthodox medicine practitioners whereas everyone knows their limits.
“In Lagos State, we practice what is called Referral System with medical doctors where traditional medicine professionals transfer cases beyond their areas of expertise to the General Hospitals. This is possible because we have trained the practitioners to know their limitations”, the Registrar asserted.
