The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has urged traditional medicine practitioners in the state to produce evidence-based information that will make Nigerians have confidence in thier craft.
Abayomi spoke on Wednesday at Alausa, Ikeja, during the inauguration of members of the Traditional Medicine Board Research Group saddled with the responsibilities of developing solutions to problems associated with traditional medicine, Punch reports.
He said with the constitution of the research group, Lagos would be the first to start offering scientific and rational explanations for the use of herbal medicine in the management of human health challenges.
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“We want our practitioners to be accorded the same honour and respect given to the modern-day medicine practitioners like it is the situation in developed climes like India, Cuba, among others, where patients could even choose to opt for traditional treatment against modern day medical treatment because the two practices had proved to be very potent in healing processes,” he added.
The commissioner noted that the state government could not undermine the contributions of traditional medicine practitioners to the health of residents since they outnumbered their modern-day medicine counterparts in the state and the country as a whole.
Abayomi disclosed that the practitioners were at greater advantage because they were not threatened by brain drain like medical doctors who left their country of practice for greener pastures.
He said the state government increased resources allocated to traditional medicine practice in the 2020 budget to show the importance of the health sector to the current administration.
The commissioner asked them to always operate within the ambit of the law and coordinate their activities in an orderly manner.
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