General News of Wednesday, 15 October 1997

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Herbalists Urged To Cooperate With Ministry Of Health

Wa,(Upper West Region) 14 Oct. Herbalists have been urged to collaborate with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to turn potent herbal medicine into tablets and injectables to enhance the health delivery system. Mr. Emmanuel Quarcoo, Upper West Deputy Director of Pharmaceutical Services of the ministry made the call at a meeting with members of the Traditional Herbalists' Association in the region at Wa. The meeting was convened by the association to find out problems affecting the smooth operations of herbalists in the area, Mr. Quarcoo advised herbalists to ensure that they use the correct dosage of their preparations while maintaining their potency and minimising the side-effects of their herbal medicine. Doctor Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, the Regional Director of Health Services, asked herbalists to obtain licences and label all their herbal preparations to help weed out quacks. Mallam Mahama Topie, the regional chairman of the association, appealed to the MOH for a grinding mill and filtering materials for practitioners to facilitate the processing of their herbal preparations.