AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government has directed the National Medical Research Institute (NIMR) to speed up research on traditional medicines to allow citizens to get feedback on various studies in progress.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Prof Abel Makubi, said although NIMR had identified its priority areas for research in the next five years, the government would like to see more emphasis being put on traditional medicines.
He said President John Magufuli had already directed relevant authorities to research on traditional medicines as alternative healthcare, thus the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children and NIMR should ensure they speeded up the process and release findings on ongoing research for public consumption.
Early this year as the world battled against the coronavirus pandemic, Dr Magufuli stressed the importance of traditional medicines, urging members of the public to utilise them.
He directed an additional budget for traditional medicines to improve healthcare services.
“As a result of advances in science and technology we seem to ignore traditional medicines. We must change because even the drugs we get from hospitals are based on herbs,” he said.
The CMO was speaking at the launch of MINR’s 40th anniversary in Dar es Salaam on Saturday.
Prof Makubi commended NIMR for coming up with various herbal and alternative therapy products used by members of the public while others were still being researched on.
“Although we have recorded some notable achievements we should direct more efforts to ensure members of the public are provided with study findings.”
He, however, said NIMR had contributed greatly to the health sector, noting that it was conducting research on a health system aimed at improving the sector.
“NIMR is conducting studies on better ways of providing integrated services on chronic diseases such as HIV/Aids, TB and non-communicable diseases,” he said.
He noted that a study on integrated health services aimed at improving service delivery by enabling a patient to access services in one area instead of visiting different clinics to access health services.
“Preliminary results have showed success especially positive responses from patients on the acceptance of the system,” he said.
NIMR Director-General, Prof Yunus Mgaya, said NIMR through its Department of Traditional Medicines Research had developed different herbal and alternative therapies to ascertain their effectiveness.
“They include NIMRCAF, a remedy for cough and flue, NIMRVIT, a healthy drink with multiple vitamins, PERSIVIN, herbal treatment for benign prostate, hypertrophy and NIMREGENIN, a herbal remedy for the management of cancer,” Prof Mgaya said.
He noted that herbal remedies for malaria and other diseases through the use of resisted traditional healers were also being explored.
Prof Mgaya, however, said the 40th anniversary was a milestone as NIMR had planned a series of activities from November to December this year which would be held at all NIMR centres and the headquarters in the country.
