Text of report by Kenyan KTN TV on 7 May
[Presenter Michael Oyier] Tonight on Health Digest the debate over whether to incorporate herbal treatment into public hospitals has led to heated debate between doctors and herbalists. But whatever the case, herbal medicine is gaining popularity, both locally and internationally. On Health Digest tonight, KTN’s Mwendwa Kingora takes a look at why more people are turning to nature for a cure.
[Kingora] Barely a decade ago, few people would want to be associated with herbal medicine. Consulting a herbalist was equated to visiting a witch doctor and the conventional bark of trees and concoctions in bottles did not make it attractive. But all that is changing now. Herbal medicine is quickly gaining popularity as it is no longer dished out as roots or leaves. But it is moving with the times and packaged more attractive capsules, tablets, cream or powdered form.
At the Makini Herbal Clinic in Ngara [Nairobi], the practitioners have gone a step further and incorporated state of art equipment in their laboratory to diagnoze and best treat symptoms presented to them.
[Dr Sizyah Kimambo, herbal practitioner] So when we decided to bring up the machines for scanning and lab facilities it was because most of them, when they come here, though they come with chronic diseases, they believe that if we do the examination ourselves they tend to trust us more.
[Kingora] One of the most sought-after natural medicine is the Muarubaini, the one that is said to treat over 40 ailments. It has immune boosting characteristics and is said to manage rheumatism, diabetes, asthma and kidney disorders. Renowned herbalist Dr [Helge] Linck maintains that he can heal diseases that conventional medicine has failed to handle.
[Linck] We are not allowed to say they can cure asthma but we get rid of it and I have got hundreds and thousands of letters from people who had asthma terribly for five, 10 years and after one or two weeks they don’t need to take the inhaler. And now they are all right. Or if you got tonsillitis, even if the doctor has said, ‘look here, you come back in two or three days time they will operate your sinus’, give me two days or three days, you take my medicine, when you go there, I guarantee you that – your tonsils all right we don’t need to operate. What have you taken?
[Kingora] He says the human body works in harmony with nature.
[Linck] To find out why is your immune system not doing what it should do, that is to fight your asthma, your allergy or your cancer and all that there, and the usually within 20 or 30 minutes I know that is the problem. Now then we give your body what is needed so that the immune system will work 100 per cent and get rid of it. So it is not me, it is the medicine or your body, which does it.
[Kingora] Those who opt for herbal medicine are full praise for the treatment, most of them having been diagnosed by conventional doctors but visit these clinics as a last resort.
[David Wambua, patient, in Swahili] I was suffering from ulcers. I have been to an hospital in Kitengela [southeast of Nairobi] where I was tested. The drugs I was asked to buy did not help. I went back to Machakos, where I was tested again and asked to buy more drugs. I’m yet to feel better. I kept on falling sick every two months.
[Kingora] The World Health Organization has also recognized the importance of alternative medicine and is recommending that it is incorporated into public hospitals to manage diseases and poverty. But the debate between the two institutions rages on.
[Dr Davy Koech, director, Kenya Medical Research Institute] The institute itself is keen in developing this area. It is also keen in exploring the biodiversity that is available in order to preserve what is there.
[Linck] If we wanted to help the nation, we could do a lot of good ourselves. But I know that the pharmaceutical companies are very powerful and very rich and they don’t like persons like me.
[Kingora] The medicinal value of herbs is not in question. For centuries, herbal medicine has been used to cure various ailments.
But conventional doctors now want a policy framework that will regular herbalists.
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