COVID-19: Herbal sample to be evaluated this month

COVID-19|NACRI|HERBALISTS|TREATMENT
KAMPALA - Herbalists under the National Chemotherapeutic Research Institute (NACRI) are set to evaluate the first standardized herbal sample on patients of covid-19 this month.

Dr Grace Nambatya, the director Research at NACRI said this will be the first breakthrough of herbal treatment amongst covid-19 patients.

Commissioning the equipment to standardize herbal medicine at the institute, Dr Nambatya was grateful that the first trial herbal medicine for covid-19 was coming out at the time when the president had just assented to the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act.

The Act looks at creation of a council including promoting ethical values.

"There will be a council for traditional and complementary health practitioners with committees to oversee education, licensing of people who want to put up shops, oversee discipline and also clarify on what traditional healers will be calling themselves," said Nambatya.

According to Nambatya, traditional healers have been queried for calling themselves doctors.

The law according to her will guide on what foreigners should access since most of them come and take away anything.

"You may have a private business and engage foreigners who later take away everything, but now the law will guide on that in addition to addressing the issue of announcing on radio stations anything.

"Announcing anything bogus will attract a sh20m penalty and will also penalize the media house which will help in bringing sanity in the entire sector," she said.

She applauded the government for organizing the herbalists and supporting them with equipment to improve on the products they research on to ensure that herbal trees are not just cut and destroyed.

Commissioning the equipment, the Minister for Science Technology and Innovations, Dr Elioda Tumwesigye, said his ministry through the innovation fund is ready to support Science and Technology including intellectual property.

He applauded Dr Nambatya for embracing herbal research which can help Ugandans overcome epidemics.

"Dr Nambatya is one of our working groups and through our ministry we have no reason for failing to support her in any research," Tumwesigye said.

He said the commissioned, were part of the sh5b equipment to be delivered to different parts of the country including Makerere University, Ministry of health among others.

"These equipment will help a lot in the fight against covid-19 within different sectors," he added.

The president Uganda Herbalists Associational, Jamir Lutaakome also the representative of Herbalists at the National Drug Authority Board, was grateful that the equipment will guarantee the standard of the products made.

"These new machines will help the traditional medicine sector to critically analyze and guide all what we do in our traditional medicine.
 
We are grateful to the president who realized that there is a need for this lab to have extra machines which will extract and scrutinize our local herbs," Lutaakome said.   

He added, "Uganda is fertile in herbal medicine and we think if we utilize these machines very well, we shall have to make herbal syrups and other herbal products which will even attack pandemics including covid-19."

Regarding presidential consent to the law, Lutaakome said the law will help the practitioners to acquire funds from research institutions and also guide the consumers on herbal medicine in case of any problem to enhance easy tracing of the parties involved.

The senior presidential advisor on epidemics, Dr Monica Musenero, observed the need for greater improvement of herbal products to ensure that they contribute to the country's GDP.

"Why do we have to yarn for imported drugs yet we have experts here who can do the entire research work until the product is ready for local and international consumption," Musenero wondered.

The commissioner pharmaceutical services and medicines control in the Ministry of Health, Okuna Neville asked the institute head to work towards making Uganda self-sustaining while addressing epidemics.