Govt approves five herbals

The government on Tuesday, March 13th officially formalized and incorporated five herbal medicines into the formal health structures to be legally used in the public hospitals for treating various diseases.

One of the medicines is “Ujana” that treats sexual dysfunction in men suffering from erectile dysfunction (ED). The condition occurs when a man has difficulties in getting an erection.

The other medicines are IH Moon, Colloidal Silver, Sudhi and Vatari.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the Registrar of the Alternative Health Practices Council of Tanzania (AHPCT), Dr Ruth Suza, clarified that the five herbal medicines were examined and verified by Government Chemist Laboratory Agency.

Earlier, on the same occasion, the Deputy Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children, Dr Faustine Ndugulile, directed all traditional healers countrywide to stop marketing the unverified alternative medicines on social media platforms.

He also wanted them to remove posters from the streets.

"I want traditional healers to stop engaging in unlawful activities,

“I, therefore, want them to remove posters from the streets, indicating a list of traditional and alternative medicines,” he said.

He further urged the healers to comply with the principles governing the AHPCT when providing traditional services to their customers.

In other industrialized countries on African continent and in the world, in order to solve the problem of a drug shortage or high costs, the use of the traditional medicine and complementary and alternative medicine (T/CAM) has been well documented.

However, yet traditional healers, for the most part, are not officially recognized by governments. They operate outside formal health structures.