Menace of traditional healers and drug hawkers

Menace of traditional healers and drug hawkers
By
DR Abdullahi Dahiru
Kano
An elderly patient went to a General hospital with complaint of poor vision and was diagnosed as having glaucoma. The doctor prescribed diamox, a drug used to treat glaucoma for her. She went to the hospital pharmacy where she was told that the drug is out-of-stock. She later in the evening sent her 15 year old grandchild to a nearby drug store to buy the drug for her. The grand child was met on the road by a drug hawker selling his drugs. The child decided to buy from the drug hawker instead of the chemist shop. The drug hawker told him that he doesn’t have diamox but has its “substitute” and ignorantly gave him diabenese, a drug used to treat diabetes and told him to tell his grandmother to take the drug four times daily. She was rushed back to the general hospital comatose and died the next day.
One of my childhood friends went to a market one afternoon to buy some items. As he was going out of the market, he was met by a herbalist selling medicines. He collected a concoction to take as a remedy for ‘pile’. My friend started having profuse diarrhoea after taking the medication and has to be admitted at the general hospital for treatment
I cited this example above because they are reflections of what is happening everyday in many towns in Nigeria.
The menace has many dimensions ranging from illiterate people hawking expired and fake drugs in streets and market places under the blazing sun, to semi-literate people opening patent medicine stores and committing all sort of unorthodox practices like unsafe injections, criminal abortions and unnecessary infusions of intravenous fluids. They ask gullible patients to conduct several tests and prescribe drugs for them. Even more disturbing, one finds herbalists [popularly referred nowadays as traditional medical practitioners] in streets and market places selling all sort of concoctions to people and making whimsical claims to cure ‘Staphylococcus’, hypertension, diabetes, impotence etc. They now even make advertisements on radio, television, and newspapers and magazines. It is sad to note that our own traditional practitioners still base their practice on superstitions and deceit. They use all sort all vulgar and obscene language to sell their medications all in the name of making cheap and quick money. It has now become a very lucrative business where “drug fairs” are organized routinely in major towns with each healer trying to prove his ‘expertise’ in treatment of most diseases. The efficacy of these concoctions is doubtful if not laughable considering the different number of ailments a single concoction is said to cure; surprisingly the gullible people believe in their claims and even buy these concoctions.
It is customary now for patients to seek attention only in hospital after consulting traditional practitioners or chemist’s shop without relief. We know that many of these medications are harmful to vital organs like the liver and kidneys. It is not surprising therefore to find many of these drugs and concoctions contributing to mortality and morbidity in most hospitals.
It is obvious that ignorance of some of our people has contributed to the perpetration of these acts.
Lack of adequate medical facilities in most areas has led people to look for alternatives and unfortunately the easiest place is the chemist’s shop, drug hawker or a traditional healer.
The society is now overwhelmed by greediness and avarice. Nobody cares about the consequence of his unwholesome practice provided he will get quick and cheap money out of his business.
We should enlighten our people about the dangers of taking traditional medications and purchasing drugs from drug hawkers.
The government should provide more health centres especially in the rural areas and adequately manned by trained personnel so that people will have easy access to consultation and treatment .Health centres should have essential drugs so that patient patients can purchase their drugs from hospital pharmacy instead of chemist’s shops. In cases where a drug is out-of –stock in the hospital pharmacy, patients should purchase drugs only from reputable pharmacy shops. A law should be made to regulate the activities of traditional healers if outright prohibition of their activities is not possible. All drug hawking should be banned.
Regulatory bodies like NAFDAC should redouble their efforts in supervision and ensure strict penalties for non-compliers. The pharmacist council of Nigeria and the states ministries of health should make sure that only qualified personnel are licensed to operate pharmacy shops.
It is the duty of government, professional bodies and all members of the society to ensure that people are saved from untimely deaths and trauma inflicted on them by the menace of traditional healers and drug hawkers.