Join forces to tackle COVID-19 — Trado-medicine practitioners

Practitioners of traditional medicine in Lagos are called upon to unite so on enhance and optimise their potentials.

Making the decision, the Chairman, Lagos State Traditional Medicine Board, Prof. Adebukola Oshintelu, who spoke on a live phone-in programme, tagged “Issues within the News”, emphasised the necessity for traditional medicine practitioners to make a standard front just like the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, so on command deserved respect and recognition.

“We got to find how of becoming one formidable body which will be ready to reorganise traditional medicine while having the ability to urge support and recognition in society”, she said.

Oshintelu said efforts were being made by the Board to seek out a cure to the Coronavirus disease, which traditional medicine practitioners are discussing possible solutions, samples of which are sent to relevant bodies for testing and thorough examination before being ratified for human consumption.

She maintained that Nigeria is endowed with many medicinal plants to combat the pandemic, stressing that “what we’d like is to specialise in these plants to spice up our immunity and reduce inflammation”.

While applauding the Central Bank’s pledge to back researchers financially, the Chairman opined that the initiative would go an extended way within the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, even as she solicited for collaboration between orthodox and traditional medicine practitioners for optimal leads to the health sector.

Oshintelu also implored all traditional practitioners to understand their limits while managing patients, noting that “when surgery or other intervention is required, practitioners should refer patients promptly. it’s not advisable for them to carry on to cases that they can’t handle”.

She commended Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the moral and support the government has given to the Board, soliciting that a laboratory is about up to check the efficacy also as toxicology of medicinal plants and also explore the management of metabolic diseases with traditional products.