AEGiS-IRIN: NIGERIA: Endorsement of traditional medicine for HIV/AIDS

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

NIGERIA: Endorsement of traditional medicine for HIV/AIDS

Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 8, 2000

After years of ambivalence on the issue of traditional medicine, Nigeria's federal government said it would accord traditional medicine practice formal status in the national health system, the news agency PANA reported. Health Minister Tim Menakaya said in particular the government was interested in the use of traditional medicine in the current fight against HIV/AIDS.

"After prolonged suppression in favour of conventional medicine, traditional medicine practice and practitioners henceforth would be accorded formal status in the national health system," the minister said at the opening of an international conference on traditional medicine and HIV/AIDS in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, this week.

He said apart from evolving a national policy on traditional medicine and a code of ethics on practice, "government is currently in support of how traditional medicine can contribute optimally to the control of HIV/AIDS and malaria from the preventive, curative and rehabilitative perspectives."

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