Agbozume, Sept. 17, GNA - Dr Emmanuel Mensah, a former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Tuesday advised traditional medicine practitioners to begin keeping verifiable literature on their treatments, saying that was how orthodox medicine developed.

"Avoid the negative practice of keeping your knowledge secret for fear of it being stolen by others. Orthodox medicine did not grow so," he said.

Dr Mensah said this at a two-day capacity training workshop in Agbozume for about 50 traditional medicine practitioners drawn from the Volta Region.

Topics treated included human immunity, data keeping, compliance, standardization and sexually transmitted diseases. It was organized by the Traditional Medicine Practice Council Secretariat of the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the WHO, Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners (GHASTRAM) and the Association for the Promotion of Traditional Medicine (PROMETRA). Dr Mensah said though costly, it was necessary that traditional medicine preparations were tested and verified by appropriate regulatory and research institutions.

Mr Francis Hlortsi-Akakpo of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council Secretariat reminded the participants of the new dimensions and challenges facing medical practice world wide and the need for high standards to be met. He said the Secretariat was putting in appropriate structures to facilitate regular training for practitioners to be able to play their appropriate roles in the health delivery sector. Mr Hlortsi-Akakpo advised traditional medicine practitioners to desist from using titles such as doctor and professor and if they did that should be qualified by the word traditional. Togbe Aloka Dabra VI, a pharmacist and Chairman of PROMETRA and a Resource Person asked participants to maintain required standards throughout their operations to make their services appealing to clients. He also asked practitioners to join hands to look for a cure for the HIV/AIDS disease.

Mr Jacob Domi, GHASTRAM Chairman, appealed for the early establishment of a Council for Traditional Health Practitioners similar to the Ghana Pharmaceutical Society. He appealed to government help practitioners to come by credit to enable them finance the cost of testing their preparations.