Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fukuo Herbal Clinic, Dr Stephen Fukuo, has appealed to the government to support Traditional Herbal Practitoners Association of Ghana to establish a Herbal Research Center for the production of quality herbal medicines.
According to Dr Fukuo, the research center if established will empower herbal medicine producers to conduct thorough research into the pshytochemical content of medicines to know the exact match concentration to be applied on a disease at a given time.
He made the appeal in an interview with ghananewsonline.com.gh after the commemoration of the fifth annivasary of the Fukuo Herbal Clinic at Kumasi Pakyi No1 in the Ashanti Region.
He emphasized that herbal medication is a better alternative compared to authodox medicine in terms of cronic and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). He said most herbal practitoners especially those who do not have recognized centers find it difficult to conduct research on their medicines which is why they are unable to print labels to indicate how the medicines should be used.
He emphasized that kidney failure and liver inframatory which some Ghanaians have been complaining about is due to the overdose of poorly labeled herbal medicines.
“We have organised an open forum at the Ministry of Health to dialogue on the need for such a facility. It could be initiated as part of the one district one factory where government is partnering private sector to construct a factory in every District, we can initiate to establish this factory in one of the Districts to provide the service at a very low price to enable all Practitoners whether in large or small scale productions to save our lives in the country,” he stated.
He appealed to the Ghana Health Service through the Ministry of Health to as a matter of urgency consider transferring patients who need herbal medication to the herbal clinics and centers to save lives since there are some diseases that need herbal treatment.
Dr. Fukuo maintained that Ghana could save millions of dollars from the importation of medicines if there is a working collaboration between herbal practitoners and the Ghana health service. This according to him can also create jobs to reduce the unemployment situation in the country.
Source: William Dei-Gyau
