Comprehensive Health Care System without Traditional Medicine: A Distorted Approach

Q2 Social Sciences Studies on Ethno-Medicine Pub Date : 2019-01-08 DOI:10.31901/24566772.2019/13.1.584
I. A. Nwosu
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However, the current National Health Policy in Nigeria did not incorporate TM. There are idiopathic illnesses, whose causes are unknown to orthodox medicine. This is where TM excels both in prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, a good health care system must incorporate TM through the application of cross-breeding integrative approach. Address for correspondence: Dr. Innocent A. Nwosu Phone: 08067653411 E-mail:innoglo22000@yahoo.com INTRODUCTION The goal of the National Health Policy is to bring about a comprehensive health care system for all citizens of Nigeria. Unfortunately, Nigeria is presently confronted with a health crisis, driven by enormous burden of poverty and disease. Under the current health care system, orthodox medicine has taken the centre stage. Traditional medicine has been relegated to the background. In some cases, traditional medicine has been regarded as fetish, evil, unhygienic and sign of backwardness. This is in spite of the fact that Kaya (2017:16) pointed out that the World Health Organization (WHO) defined traditional medicine (TM) as the “sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures..... used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, in improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.” However, with the neglect of TM, it has been realized that many Nigerians are still dying of preventable and/or curable diseases. Comprehensive healthcare therefore, has been a mirage due to poor quality of services, inefficient service delivery and inadequate resources to finance the system. Actually, health care services mirror society’s cosmology and political structure. That is why it has been difficult to achieve comprehensive health care without recognising the culture and worldview of the people, of which traditional medicine is part. Traditional health care system, which is the oldest medical system in Nigeria, has been the initial avenue of assessing care for seventy-five percent of the Nigerian population (Baidoo2009). This is why Yuan et al. (2016) noted that TMs use natural products and are of great value. According to them, TMs have been practised in different parts of the world for centuries and have in some cases changed to become orderly-regulated systems of medicine. This is particularly common among Asian countries like China. Dong (2013) also added that Chinese Traditional medicine is based on 5000 years of medical practice and experience and is rich in data from “clinical experiments” that portrays its efficacy and effectiveness. Ethno Med, 13(1): 27-36 (2019) DOI: 10.31901/24566772.2019/13.01.584 © Kamla-Raj 2019 PRINT: ISSN 0973-5070 ONLINE: ISSN 2456-6772 28 INNOCENT A. NWOSU, JOSEPH EKPECHU, VIVIAN C. NJEMANZE ET AL. Ethno Med, 13(1): 27-36 (2019) As a result, it can be seen that traditional health care system is a comprehensive medical system on its own. This is because it attends to man’s health needs – biological, psychological, social and spiritual. Traditional medicine (TM), of which traditional healthcare is an integral part, is very effective, efficient, cost less and mostly supported by the people’s culture. Sometimes those problems that are beyond orthodox medicine are successfully handled by traditional healthcare. To buttress the efficacy of traditional medicine, Berube (2015:1) noted: I have an early childhood memory of my grandmother boiling water on a wood stove. A soft cedar scent emanated from the pot. Grandma was coming down with cold, so she was making a rust-coloured tea from a mix of leaves and branches she had gathered in the woods. The tea was going to help her feel better, help her get better. Berube (2015) went further to ask the golden question: “Is there a place for traditional medicine in the present health care system?” The answer he gave was affirmative. Therefore, comprehensive health care system, as an evolving system, should recognise the relevance of the forms of medicine and healing that are steeped in culture and history. The World Health Organisation has acknowledged the importance of traditional medicine and healing in bringing about a new face of health care that includes thinking about and applying a system that has been effective in various societies for centuries. This leads us to the fact that traditional medicine involves working with people to help them heal, not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually, that is, healthcare with focus on patients. That is why Berube (2015) regards traditional healing as a holistic healing because it involves an integrative approach that seeks balance of the environment, the physical, the emotional and the spiritual. In other words, traditional medicine involves the use of healing properties of many medicines found in and on the land and water to bring sick persons back to health. This involves physical materials and healing ceremonies (which at times serve as placebo). The aim of all these is to achieve holistic wellness. It is as a result of all these that World Health Organisation (WHO) emphasized that traditional medicine can be a useful approach to resolve community health problems (Park et al. 2014). Apart from that, traditional medicine is getting significant attention in global health debates. For instance, it helped to manage severe acute respiratory syndrome in some countries like China. Eighty percent of African people use some form of traditional medicine and the world wide annual market for herbal products has reached US $60 billion. There is also hope that traditional medicine research will play a critical role in global health (WHO 2003; Wilcox and Bodeker 2004; Tilburt and Kaptchuk 2008). As attention and public interest for comprehensive health care system grow, more detailed analysis of critical issues in health management in Nigeria is desirable. Scanty literature have addressed selected issues such as the weakness of orthodox medicine under a strange culture, relationship between policy positions and actual practice, different views on integration and views of traditional medicine as a partner with orthodox medicine. Objectives of the Study Therefore, this study applied a practical and widely acceptable anthropological microscopic approach to examine the socio-medical value of traditional medicine, its scientific validity and favourable risk-benefit ratio. Specifically, the study aims at the following: 1. To examine the nature of traditional medicine. 2. To identify the position of traditional medicine in the National Health Policy of Nigeria. 3. To assess the success and weakness of orthodox medicine without TM. 4. To find out the importance of traditional medicine in healthcare system. 5. 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引用次数: 1

Abstract

The major purpose of Nigeria’s National Health Policy is comprehensive health care. Nigeria’s healthcare system is actually patterned in line with the universal levels; primary, secondary and tertiary. Unfortunately, traditional medicine (TM) is not recognized at any of these levels. Therefore, this paper assessed the level of successes and weaknesses inherent in orthodox medicine and the aspects that require traditional medicine to improve the system. To achieve this, different articles and documents were reviewed. The result shows that a high profile initiative has been put together by the Health Ministry to articulate Nigeria’s comprehensive actions to fast track the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, the current National Health Policy in Nigeria did not incorporate TM. There are idiopathic illnesses, whose causes are unknown to orthodox medicine. This is where TM excels both in prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, a good health care system must incorporate TM through the application of cross-breeding integrative approach. Address for correspondence: Dr. Innocent A. Nwosu Phone: 08067653411 E-mail:innoglo22000@yahoo.com INTRODUCTION The goal of the National Health Policy is to bring about a comprehensive health care system for all citizens of Nigeria. Unfortunately, Nigeria is presently confronted with a health crisis, driven by enormous burden of poverty and disease. Under the current health care system, orthodox medicine has taken the centre stage. Traditional medicine has been relegated to the background. In some cases, traditional medicine has been regarded as fetish, evil, unhygienic and sign of backwardness. This is in spite of the fact that Kaya (2017:16) pointed out that the World Health Organization (WHO) defined traditional medicine (TM) as the “sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures..... used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, in improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.” However, with the neglect of TM, it has been realized that many Nigerians are still dying of preventable and/or curable diseases. Comprehensive healthcare therefore, has been a mirage due to poor quality of services, inefficient service delivery and inadequate resources to finance the system. Actually, health care services mirror society’s cosmology and political structure. That is why it has been difficult to achieve comprehensive health care without recognising the culture and worldview of the people, of which traditional medicine is part. Traditional health care system, which is the oldest medical system in Nigeria, has been the initial avenue of assessing care for seventy-five percent of the Nigerian population (Baidoo2009). This is why Yuan et al. (2016) noted that TMs use natural products and are of great value. According to them, TMs have been practised in different parts of the world for centuries and have in some cases changed to become orderly-regulated systems of medicine. This is particularly common among Asian countries like China. Dong (2013) also added that Chinese Traditional medicine is based on 5000 years of medical practice and experience and is rich in data from “clinical experiments” that portrays its efficacy and effectiveness. Ethno Med, 13(1): 27-36 (2019) DOI: 10.31901/24566772.2019/13.01.584 © Kamla-Raj 2019 PRINT: ISSN 0973-5070 ONLINE: ISSN 2456-6772 28 INNOCENT A. NWOSU, JOSEPH EKPECHU, VIVIAN C. NJEMANZE ET AL. Ethno Med, 13(1): 27-36 (2019) As a result, it can be seen that traditional health care system is a comprehensive medical system on its own. This is because it attends to man’s health needs – biological, psychological, social and spiritual. Traditional medicine (TM), of which traditional healthcare is an integral part, is very effective, efficient, cost less and mostly supported by the people’s culture. Sometimes those problems that are beyond orthodox medicine are successfully handled by traditional healthcare. To buttress the efficacy of traditional medicine, Berube (2015:1) noted: I have an early childhood memory of my grandmother boiling water on a wood stove. A soft cedar scent emanated from the pot. Grandma was coming down with cold, so she was making a rust-coloured tea from a mix of leaves and branches she had gathered in the woods. The tea was going to help her feel better, help her get better. Berube (2015) went further to ask the golden question: “Is there a place for traditional medicine in the present health care system?” The answer he gave was affirmative. Therefore, comprehensive health care system, as an evolving system, should recognise the relevance of the forms of medicine and healing that are steeped in culture and history. The World Health Organisation has acknowledged the importance of traditional medicine and healing in bringing about a new face of health care that includes thinking about and applying a system that has been effective in various societies for centuries. This leads us to the fact that traditional medicine involves working with people to help them heal, not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually, that is, healthcare with focus on patients. That is why Berube (2015) regards traditional healing as a holistic healing because it involves an integrative approach that seeks balance of the environment, the physical, the emotional and the spiritual. In other words, traditional medicine involves the use of healing properties of many medicines found in and on the land and water to bring sick persons back to health. This involves physical materials and healing ceremonies (which at times serve as placebo). The aim of all these is to achieve holistic wellness. It is as a result of all these that World Health Organisation (WHO) emphasized that traditional medicine can be a useful approach to resolve community health problems (Park et al. 2014). Apart from that, traditional medicine is getting significant attention in global health debates. For instance, it helped to manage severe acute respiratory syndrome in some countries like China. Eighty percent of African people use some form of traditional medicine and the world wide annual market for herbal products has reached US $60 billion. There is also hope that traditional medicine research will play a critical role in global health (WHO 2003; Wilcox and Bodeker 2004; Tilburt and Kaptchuk 2008). As attention and public interest for comprehensive health care system grow, more detailed analysis of critical issues in health management in Nigeria is desirable. Scanty literature have addressed selected issues such as the weakness of orthodox medicine under a strange culture, relationship between policy positions and actual practice, different views on integration and views of traditional medicine as a partner with orthodox medicine. Objectives of the Study Therefore, this study applied a practical and widely acceptable anthropological microscopic approach to examine the socio-medical value of traditional medicine, its scientific validity and favourable risk-benefit ratio. Specifically, the study aims at the following: 1. To examine the nature of traditional medicine. 2. To identify the position of traditional medicine in the National Health Policy of Nigeria. 3. To assess the success and weakness of orthodox medicine without TM. 4. To find out the importance of traditional medicine in healthcare system. 5. To identify the most suitable approach towards the integration of orthodox medicine and traditional medicine.
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没有传统医学的综合卫生保健体系:一种扭曲的途径
尼日利亚国家卫生政策的主要目的是提供全面的卫生保健。尼日利亚的医疗保健系统实际上是与普遍水平一致的;一级,二级和三级。不幸的是,传统医学在这些层面上都没有得到认可。因此,本文评估了传统医学固有的成功水平和弱点,以及传统医学需要改进的方面。为此,审查了不同的文章和文件。结果表明,卫生部制定了一项引人注目的倡议,阐明尼日利亚为快速实现可持续发展目标而采取的综合行动。然而,尼日利亚目前的国家卫生政策并未纳入传统医学。有特发性疾病,其原因是未知的正统医学。这就是传统医学在预防、诊断和治疗方面的优势所在。因此,一个良好的卫生保健系统必须通过应用杂交综合方法纳入TM。通信地址:Innocent a. Nwosu博士电话:08067653411电子邮件:innoglo22000@yahoo.com国家卫生政策的目标是为尼日利亚所有公民建立一个全面的卫生保健系统。不幸的是,尼日利亚目前面临着由巨大的贫穷和疾病负担造成的健康危机。在目前的医疗体系下,正统医学占据了中心地位。传统医学已退居次要地位。在某些情况下,传统医学被视为迷信、邪恶、不卫生和落后的标志。尽管Kaya(2017:16)指出,世界卫生组织(世卫组织)将传统医学(TM)定义为“基于不同文化的理论、信仰和经验的知识、技能和实践的总和.....”用于维持健康以及预防、诊断、改善或治疗身心疾病。”然而,由于忽视TM,人们认识到许多尼日利亚人仍然死于可预防和/或可治愈的疾病。因此,由于服务质量差、服务提供效率低下和资源不足,全面医疗保健一直是海市蜃楼。实际上,医疗保健服务反映了社会的宇宙观和政治结构。这就是为什么如果不承认人民的文化和世界观(传统医学是其中的一部分),就很难实现全面的卫生保健。传统医疗保健系统是尼日利亚最古老的医疗系统,已成为评估尼日利亚75%人口护理的最初途径(Baidoo2009)。这就是为什么Yuan等人(2016)指出中药使用天然产物,具有很大的价值。根据他们的说法,传统医学已经在世界不同的地方实践了几个世纪,在某些情况下已经变成了有序管理的医学系统。这在中国等亚洲国家尤为普遍。Dong(2013)还补充说,中医是基于5000年的医疗实践和经验,并有丰富的“临床实验”数据,描绘其功效和效果。民族医学,13(1):27-36 (2019)DOI: 10.31901/24566772.2019/13.01.584©Kamla-Raj 2019 PRINT: ISSN 0973-5070 ONLINE: ISSN 2456-6772 28 INNOCENT A. NWOSU, JOSEPH EKPECHU, VIVIAN C. NJEMANZE等。民族医学,13(1):27-36(2019)由此可见,传统医疗体系本身就是一个综合性的医疗体系。这是因为它照顾人的生理、心理、社会和精神健康需要。传统医学(Traditional medicine, TM)是传统医疗保健的重要组成部分,其疗效显著,效率高,成本低,并且大多受到人们文化的支持。有时,这些问题超出了传统医学成功地处理传统医疗保健。为了支持传统医学的功效,Berube(2015:1)指出:我有一个早期的童年记忆,我的祖母在木炉子上烧水。一股柔和的雪松香味从壶里散发出来。奶奶感冒了,所以她正在用从树林里捡来的树叶和树枝调制一种铁锈色的茶。这杯茶会让她感觉好点,让她好起来。Berube(2015)进一步提出了一个黄金问题:“在目前的医疗保健系统中,传统医学是否有一席之地?”他的回答是肯定的。因此,综合卫生保健系统作为一个不断发展的系统,应该认识到浸透在文化和历史中的医学和治疗形式的相关性。 世界卫生组织(World Health organization)承认,传统医学和治疗在塑造医疗保健新面貌方面发挥着重要作用,其中包括思考和应用一个在多个社会中行之有效的体系。这让我们想到一个事实,传统医学包括帮助人们治愈,不仅仅是身体上的,还有心理上、情感上和精神上的,也就是说,以病人为中心的医疗保健。这就是为什么Berube(2015)认为传统治疗是一种整体治疗,因为它涉及一种寻求环境、身体、情感和精神平衡的综合方法。换句话说,传统医学涉及利用在土地和水中发现的许多药物的治疗特性,使病人恢复健康。这包括物理材料和治疗仪式(有时作为安慰剂)。所有这些的目的是实现整体健康。正是由于这些原因,世界卫生组织(世卫组织)强调,传统医学可以成为解决社区卫生问题的有用方法(Park等人,2014年)。除此之外,传统医学在全球卫生辩论中得到了极大的关注。例如,在中国等一些国家,它帮助控制了严重的急性呼吸系统综合症。80%的非洲人使用某种形式的传统药物,全球草药产品的年市场已达到600亿美元。人们还希望传统医学研究将在全球卫生方面发挥关键作用(世卫组织,2003年;Wilcox and Bodeker 2004;Tilburt and Kaptchuk 2008)。随着对综合卫生保健系统的关注和公众兴趣的增长,对尼日利亚卫生管理中的关键问题进行更详细的分析是可取的。很少有文献讨论了正统医学在陌生文化下的弱点、政策立场与实际实践之间的关系、对整合的不同看法以及传统医学作为正统医学的合作伙伴的看法等选定问题。因此,本研究采用了一种实用且被广泛接受的人类学微观方法来检验传统医学的社会医学价值,其科学有效性和有利的风险-收益比。具体而言,本研究的目的如下:1。检验传统医学的本质。2. 确定传统医学在尼日利亚国家卫生政策中的地位。评价无中医的正统医学的成功与不足。4. 了解传统医学在卫生保健体系中的重要性。5. 寻找最适合中医与传统医学结合的途径。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Studies on Ethno-Medicine
Studies on Ethno-Medicine Social Sciences-Cultural Studies
CiteScore
0.50
自引率
0.00%
发文量
13
期刊介绍: Studies on Ethno-Medicine is a peer reviewed, internationally circulated journal. It publishes reports of original research, theoretical articles, timely reviews, brief communications, book reviews and other publications in the interdisciplinary field of ethno-medicine. The journal serves as a forum for physical, social and life scientists as well as for health professionals. The transdisciplinary areas covered by this journal include, but are not limited to, Physical Sciences, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Life Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Botany, Agriculture, Home Science, Zoology, Genetics, Biology, Medical Sciences, Public Health, Demography and Epidemiology. The journal publishes basic, applied and methodologically oriented research from all such areas. The journal is committed to prompt review, and priority publication is given to manuscripts with novel or timely findings, and to manuscript of unusual interest. Further, the manuscripts are categorised under three types, namely - Regular articles, Short Communications and Reviews. The researchers are invited to submit original papers in English (papers published elsewhere or under consideration elsewhere shall not be considered).
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