Alternative Medicine
Nigeria – FEC Approves bill on establishment of traditional
The ministry of health presented a memo on a bill to establish the council for traditional, Alternative and complementary medicine practice in Nigeria. This is a memo that seeks to take traditional and complementary medicine out of obscurity and give it a profile to institutionalise it as has been done in other countries like China and India. He said the emergence of Coronavirus has renewed the call for home grown solutions to public health diseases and value in Traditional medicines. And the proposed law, when approved, would also help protect the intellectual property of traditional medicine practitioners in the country. Read more
South Africa – Health Supplements, complementary medicines will soon no longer be regulated
Health supplements and complementary medicines – which are not programmed prescription as defined by the Medicine’s Act – will soon no longer be regulated by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, which controls all medicines, including scheduled remedies. Judge Elizabeth Kubushi gave the minister of health and the regulatory authority 12 months to determine how best to adjust these alternative medicines. She said 12 months should give the health authorities ample time to decide how best to regulate this popular industry. The order was sparked by the Alliance of Natural Health Products in South Africa assume the minister of health did not have the power to add alternative and supplementary medications to the same regulations as that of scheduled medicines. It said the definition of alternative medicines was too broad and included products that did not fall under the meaning of remedy at all. Read more