Tamar Kahn
22 November 2007
Cape Town — Health department director-general Thami Mseleku yesterday defended the government's slow progress in regulating complementary and African traditional medicines, taking on critics who wanted these remedies to be controlled in the same manner as western pharmaceutical products.
"There is a war on African traditional medicines in SA," he said. "You have people who are out to discredit these medicines despite the fact that Africans in their millions use them. We have to regulate rather than condemn."
As in Europe and the US, South African consumers are increasingly seeking alternatives to western pharmaceuticals, including herbs and nutritional supplements such as vitamins.
African traditional medicines are also popular. The health department estimates that four out of five South Africans use them. These products are not subject to the same stringent controls as pharmaceuticals, leaving consumers vulnerable to ineffective or harmful products.
In 2002 the Medicines Control Council ordered companies selling complementary medicines and nutritional supplements to provide details of their products, with a view to preparing a register and introducing tighter controls. There have been no further developments since then, which Mseleku blamed on skills shortages at the council.
"They were expecting 12 000 products and got about 60 000," he said. "Assessing it requires capacity the country does not have."
He denied the council had "pressed the pause button" and said officials were due to discuss complementary medicines at their next meeting on December 3. They would then make recommendations to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on how to proceed. Regulating African traditional medicines was even more complex, he said, arguing that they should not be subject to the same scientific tests that are applied to allopathic medicines to ensure that they are safe and effective.
"Those products are not put together in the same way (as western medicines) with what is called an active ingredient, which is what people test. You have to conduct a different set of tests and arrangements."
Mseleku said this did not suggest that measures must not address safety and efficacy. It had taken India and China years to develop a framework for traditional medicines.
These issues were being considered by the Presidential Task Team on African Traditional Medicines, he said.
Earlier this week, Parliament's health committee approved the Traditional Health Practitioners Bill, which provides for a council to oversee the profession.
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