By Omolola Afolabi 

The Lagos State Traditional Medicine Board has sought increased collaboration with the state government, saying such synergy will significantly improve health service delivery in the state.

Chair of the board, Professor Adebukunola Adefule-Ositelu, said this at a workshop on Tuesday.

She said, “We need to honestly collaborate with our traditional medicine practitioners,  and be willing to obtain necessary wisdom from them.

“Some traditional birth attendant clinics were visited by Health Facilities Management and Accreditation Agency (HEFEMMA)and sealed; full licences were also not given for alternative medicine. These anomalies must be corrected and backed by the laws of the land to match global practices.

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“They have their licences and the patients are given referral cards.”

Ositelu also announced the development of a remedy for Covid-19 virus  by the board.

“The board has a herbal medicine tagged LSTMB1 that has the approval of LUTH and accepted for TETFUND,we are now awiting clinical trials from NAFDAC.

“We’ve successfully prevented the spread of Covid-19 among our people and in the diaspora; we also claim some full recoveries from infected patients while awaiting the government to make such announcements public.”

Ositelu, an ophthalmologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, also advocated for a revisit of the 2014 MOU of the Lagos State Teaching Hospital Department  of Pharmcognosy  for a collaboration with the LSTM research group.

Adefule-Ositelu also called for more complementary activities between the orthodox medicine practitioners and their traditional medicine counterparts.

She said “Most of our traditional medicine practitioners are not literate,they’ve developed their practice over generations, the orthodox medicine practitioners on the other hand have made tremendous progress and they are more organized,so we need the cooperation”.

“The orthodox medicine has also developed technologies that will help analyse the effectiveness of each constituents,we need to apply this to thier products and get them enlightened”,she added.

She however called for a unified registration system for traditional,alternative and complementary medicines by Nigerian Medical and Dental Association.

“Alternative medicine,complementary medicine and traditional medicine are all grouped together as against the orthodox medicine,The World Health Organisation specifies that the countries that are not practicing orthodox medicine are either one of the aforementioned,Nigeria should pay strict adherence to this as well”.

Mrs Folasade Jaji, Secretary to the State Government, said, “One of the issues besetting the traditional medicine board is the perception which makes people see traditional medicine as fetish and inferior.

“I want to assure us I will go back and relate my experience to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy and, if possible, for them to see things for themselves.”

Dr.Isaac Odeyemi, an academic and  traditional medicine practiotioner, implored the traditional medicine practitioners to register their products with the National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).