Traditional medicine in Senegal: 30 years of legislative hesitation
In Senegal, the majority of the population first resorts to traditional medicine to heal their health troubles. This practice would therefore benefit from being regulated, but since the idea of adopting specific regulations was first mentioned in 1993, no law has been promulgated. How can we explain this thirty-year blockage and what would we have to gain by moving forward on this subject?
What is traditional medicine?
According to the WHO, the term "traditional medicine" describes the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices that indigenous and different cultures have used over time to preserve health and prevent, diagnose and treat physical and mental illnesses. Traditional medicine encompasses ancient practices, such as acupuncture, Ayurvedic medicine and herbal blends, as well as modern medicines. Traditional medicine is therefore largely based on the knowledge of plants and their pharmaceutical properties. For example, in Senegal, acacia is known to have anti-allergic, antibiotic and anti-worming properties. Similarly, tamarind is said to have many therapeutic properties, and it is used against several diseases, including vomiting and stress.
The institutional status of traditional medicine in Senegal: a stigmatization in favor of “modern” medicine
In this globalized world, traditional medicine suffers from the disdain of the political and medical elites: thus the law of July 4, 1966 relating to medicine adopted in Senegal banishes it by purely and simply prohibiting it. In 1993, a ministerial committee set up a committee responsible for laying the foundations for regulations. The bill only saw the light of day in 2017, but has still not been adopted by the national assembly. So what is the issue with traditional medicine?
In Senegal, the majority of the population first resorts to traditional medicine to heal their health troubles.
When the project was presented in 2017, the inter-order of health professionals strongly opposed it, denouncing the danger that traditional medicine could represent for populations. It is criticized in particular for its methodological approach which tends to treat the symptom to the detriment of the cause, without clear identification of the active principle, nor precise definition of the dosage, which can lead to side effects. Unregulated and potentially lucrative, the profession is infiltrated by charlatans, who through showy practices undermine the nobility of traditional knowledge.
Initiatives promoting traditional medicine
Despite blockages, there are initiatives, such as the traditional hospital of Keur Massar, founded by Dr Yvette Parès (1926-2010), Doctor of Biology, Doctor of Medicine, researcher at the CNRS and teacher at Cheikh Anta University Diop de Dakar from 1960 to 1992. This center has the following objectives:
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put in place a credible therapeutic alternative by developing a wider range of improved traditional medicines;
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maintain and maintain knowledge of the wealth of the national therapeutic heritage;
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popularize the benefits of the pharmacopoeia in order to arouse vocations;
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stimulate collaboration between the different medicines.
In addition, the West African Health Organization has launched a program on traditional medicine, aimed at promoting it.
Some keys to promote traditional medicine:
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Go beyond the idea of a strict compartmentalization between traditional medicine and modern medicine: practitioners of both medicines could collaborate in order to make the most of their respective knowledge and thus be able to offer alternative treatments to products from the pharmaceutical industry.
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Valuing traditional knowledge and demystifying the medicines of pharmaceutical multinationals: knowledge of plants and their therapeutic virtues come from age-old knowledge that should not be neglected and accepted in all its components, including mystical ones. It is imperative to get rid of a tendency to systematically place products from the pharmaceutical industry above medicinal plants. We now have enough hindsight to know that this industry is sometimes unscrupulous in its pursuit of profits and that the products resulting from it are not systematically reliable, in the light of numerous scandals such as that of the Pick, or more recently opioids: this addictive painkiller is believed to have killed nearly half a million Americans by overdose in 1999 and 2018. Even in the Western world, patients increasingly tend to first seek remedies natural to their ailments.
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Supervising traditional medicine is imperative to clean up its practice: this will make it possible to exclude charlatans who devalue this knowledge. The adoption of a law is also the way to promote knowledge and bring recognition to the role of traditional healers in society. It will make it possible to safeguard a thousand-year-old and precious knowledge, which, if neglected, is at risk to be forgotten.
A Senegalese delay
As Senegal delays its supervision of traditional medicine, other African countries have taken the plunge, a while ago for some, as it is the case of Burkina Faso and Benin.
In Democratic Republic of Congo, the 2018 law establishing the principles relating to the organization of public health fully recognizes traditional medicine, provides for its placing under the supervision of the Ministry of Health which sets the conditions for the exercise of traditional medicine, as well as the rights and obligations of traditional healers.
In August 2022, the Ministry of Health of Senegal announced the upcoming adoption of the law on traditional medicine. Let's hope that this time will be the right one.
