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The Menace of Traditional Medical Practitioners and Patent Medicine Sellers in Nigeria By Abdullahi Dahiru
An elderly patient went to a General hospital with complaint of poor vision and was diagnosed as having glaucoma. The Doctor prescribed Diamox, a drug used to treat glaucoma for her. She went to the hospital pharmacy where she was told that the drug is out-of-stock. She later in the evening went to a nearby patent medicine store where the shop keeper ignorantly gave her Diabenese, a drug used to treat diabetes to take four times daily. She was rushed to the General hospital comatose in the morning after taking three doses of Diabenese and died in the evening.
One of my childhood friends went to a mosque on a Friday afternoon to attend prayers. As he was going out of the mosque after the prayers, he met a herbalist selling medicines. He collected a concoction to take at home as a remedy for ‘pile’. My friend started having profuse diarrhoea after taking the medication and has to be admitted at the General Hospital for treatment.
I cited these examples above because they are a reflection of what happens everyday in many towns in Nigeria.
The menace has many dimensions ranging from illiterate people hawking expired and fake drugs in streets and market places under the blazing sun, to people opening patent medicine stores and committing all sort of unorthodox practices like unsafe injections, criminal abortions and unnecessary infusions of intravenous fluids. They ask gullible patients to conduct several tests and prescribe drugs for them. Even more disturbing, one finds herbalists [popularly referred nowadays as traditional medical practitioners] in streets and market places selling all sort of concoctions to people and making whimsical claims to cure ‘Staph’ ,hypertension, diabetes, impotence etc. They now even make advertisements on radio, television, and newspapers and magazines. It is sad to note that while countries like china have utilized their knowledge of traditional medicine to produce drugs that modern medicine has now accepted as orthodox, our own is still shrouded with superstitions and deceit. Traditional medical practitioners use all sort all vulgar language to sell their medications all in the name of making cheap money.
Doctors are now battling everyday to manage complications arising from unwholesome acts of these people, because it is customary now for patients to seek attention only in hospital after consulting traditional practitioners or chemist’s shop without relief. . One can imagine the number of man-hours wasted every day to manage these complications.
It is obvious that ignorance of our population has contributed to the perpetration of these acts. They tend to believe what every moron tells them concerning their health.
Lack of adequate medical facilities in most areas has led people to look for alternatives and unfortunately the easiest place is the chemist’s shop or a traditional medical practitioner.
Greediness and avarice have become our norms now. A patent medicine chemist is supposed to sell over- the- counter drugs [drugs that do not need prescription from a Doctor], he will go ahead selling prescription -only drugs because he want to make cheap and quick money. Lack of proper supervision by regulatory authorities like States Ministries of health NAFDAC and Pharmacist council of Nigeria [PCN] has made these people to function as if there is no law regulating their activities. If ‘pure water’ manufacturers need to obtain NAFDAC registration [though most of them don’t have it] before starting their business, I don’t see any reason why traditional medical practitioners should not obtain the same registration before commencing business. I am not against them making money, but let them do it in the proper way.
We don’t demand for compensation whenever somebody is either killed or injured through the activities of these people. Regrettably, most of the atrocities are not even reported; we just fold our arms and say “it is the will of God”. I know in most countries problems like these do not occur, why do we behave as if we are a lawless society?
I think Federal and State governments should re- examine the laws regulating the activities of patent medicine chemist with a view of making them more effective. A minimum qualification, like for example pharmacist technician certificate should be set as a requirement to patent any medicine. All those hawking drugs inside baskets should be banned. A new law should be made to guide traditional medical practice so as to make it more scientifically based. Traditional medical practitioners should be registered and certified by a new regulatory body before they start practice and their drugs registered by NAFDAC before selling. More health centres should be constructed and adequately manned by trained personnel so that people will have easy access to medical consultation .Health centres should have essential drugs so that patient patients can purchase their drugs from hospital pharmacy instead of chemist’s shops. In cases where a drug is out-of –stock in the hospital pharmacy, patients should purchase drugs only from reputable pharmacy shops.
Regulatory bodies like NAFDAC and PCN should redouble their efforts in supervision and ensure strict penalties for non-compliers.
Relatives should demand for compensation whenever their relation is either killed or harmed through these unwholesome practices to serve as a deterrent to others.
It is the duty of government, professional bodies and all members of the society to ensure that people are saved from untimely deaths and trauma inflicted on them by the menace of traditional medical practitioners and patent drugs sellers.
Dr Abdullahi Dahiru is a medical practitioner |