Varsities To Introduce Herbal Medicine Studies

The Minister of Health,
Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said that Herbal Medicine would be introduced as a course of study in Nigerian universities.
Chukwu said this during an interactive session with newsmen on the occasion of the 2014 World Malaria Day in Umuahia, last Friday.
He admitted that herbs were efficacious in the treatment of malaria, but noted that it needed to be studied as a course in the university.
The minister contended that for herbal medicine to be accepted and integrated in the treatment of malaria, the practitioners ought to study science courses.
He listed the subjects as Physiology, Anatomy, Pharmacology, Chemistry, among other subjects.
“It is only after studying these courses that herbal medicine practitioner can effectively diagnose and treat malaria and other health problems,’’ he said.
Chukwu said the inability of herbal medicine practitioners to scientifically diagnose diseases posed a great challenge toward the acceptability of herbs for disease treatment.
He said the Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development was already carrying out a research on the efficacy of herbs in the treatment of ailments.
The minister further said that the National Foods and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) would also have to carry out a test on herbs to further ascertain their medicinal efficacies.
“If your environment is dirty or you allow containers with water open in your compound as well as bushes where mosquitoes breed, you are poor. “Such poverty is not because of the lack of money but it is poverty of the mind,’’ he said.
Chukwu said that past and present administrations in Nigeria had spent N198 billion in the fight against malaria in the last 10 years.
Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia State said that his administration placed high premium on health and security of the people, saying that the state government was committed to the eradication of malaria.
Orji described malaria as the worst enemy of the people, given the high rate of deaths, especially in children and expectant mothers.
He called for greater commitment by all Nigerians in the war against the scourge, adding that the disease would be eradicated with more sensitisation and scientific inventions as well as increased funding.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Okechukwu Ogah, said that malaria had affected man for over 50,000 years and had led to the death of millions of people worldwide.
Ogah explained that a WHO report in 2012, showed that there were about 207 million cases of malaria and an estimated 627,000 deaths worldwide.
He said that malaria was endemic in Abia and accounted for 60 per cent of causes of outpatient hospital attendance and 11 per cent of childhood and maternal deaths in the state.
He said that the state had set up a malaria and vector control programme in line with the strategic plan of the National Malaria Elimination Programme.