WELCOME TO DR OBOH MEDICINE

According to the WHO, traditional medicine is the total of knowledge, skills, and experiences based on the theories, beliefs, and practices indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable, that are used to maintain health, and to prevent, diagnose, improve, or treat physical and mental illnesses. Hence, these practices have been explored by people since time immemorial to treat various diseases before the arrival of orthodox medicines. These herbal medicines may include herbs, herbal materials, herbal concoctions and finished herbal products [3]. Over the years, the patronage of people towards herbal medicine has been increasing tremendously because of several reasons that include but are not limited to the following:

•(a)  The belief of rural dwellers and their indigenous cultures: Numerous rural dwellers have strong convictions that their beliefs and cultural practices for treating diseases are far better than modern medicine. Some even have a strong phobia towards orthodox medicines. As a result, nothing can make them opt for orthodox medicine even if the government is willing to pay their medical bills. They prefer consulting their gods and searching for a practical solution by sacrificing animals to please their gods. Different African traditional healers have their unique ways of consulting their oracles and communicating their findings to clients on their health-related issues and the possible solutions. In addition, these patients are more comfortable in expressing their health problems to the traditional healers in their local dialects than to a professional medical doctor.

•(b) A perception that herbal medicines are natural and safe: Most herbal medicine users believe that herbal medicines are safe because they are products of plant naturally found in the environment and thus, they assume that being natural implies safety with no adverse effect compared to those reported from the use of orthodox medicine.

•(c)  Accessibility and cost-effectiveness: Herbal medicines have been the only option source of treatment in some African communities because they are cheap and the raw materials for preparing the mixtures are easily available. Besides, their cost-effectiveness cannot be compared with orthodox medicines, as most people living in these areas are poor and unable to afford the cost of modern treatments. These salient reasons have mitigated the rural dwellers towards the use of herbal medicines.

•(d) Superior efficacy of herbal medicines: Many people believe that herbal medicines are more potent than orthodox medicines and the failure of orthodox medicines to treat some complicated health problems has diverted people’s attention in seeking herbal mixtures as an alternative source. Herbal mixtures contain several bioactive compounds that are believed to work together in synergy and thus enhancing their potency over orthodox medicines.

•(e)Confidentiality of health problem information: Most people are not comfortable when information regarding their health problem is revealed to many people other than their doctor [13]. All patients have files containing their health information and the medical record clerks are responsible for handling these files. However, local people who use herbal medicines feel safer and prefer to discuss their health problem with the traditional healers to a modern health system where their files will be handle by different people on duty.

•(f) Self-medication: This habit is common among the people living in the rural and semi-urban communities in African countries since the plant materials are easily accessible coupled with the little knowledge they acquired from generation about herbal concoctions, they tend to prescribe herbs preparations for people around them with similar kind of illnesses. The assumption is that since the concoctions have worked for other people, they would also serve the same purpose for any sick person with related symptoms.

•(g)  Fear of erroneous diagnosis: Most people prefer to opt for traditional medicines because of the fear of the wrong diagnosis from the modern health system. There are several reasons why a patient can be wrongly diagnosed in the hospital and such factors include unskilled medical operators (lack of advanced training of medical operators on the usage of new medical equipment), failure of old medical equipment, over the labour of medical staff, underpayment of medical staff, the inexperience of medical staff, mismanagement of patient’s file, inconsistency/changing of the medical doctor in charge of a patient.

(h)  Long waiting period and queue involved to see a medical doctor: The queue involved, and time spent in seeing a medical doctor at the hospital is unbearable for most people in Africa, most especially, people without medical aid that patronize the government hospitals. Most hospitals in Africa are understaffed, so the population of patients overwhelms the capacity of these hospitals, and consequently, patients often seek an immediate alternative to solve their health problems. In some cases, sick people in the village might need urgent attention, with no ambulance available in the villages to convey them to the modern hospital in the town or city. In addition, a bad road network in the villages has been a huge challenge for the rural dwellers to get proper medical treatment. Besides, even the so-called mobile clinics are always frustrated or unwilling to go to the villages to attend to the poor people because of the poor road network, consequently, the villagers tend to opt for the most available alternative treatment.

•(i)  Advertisement of herbal products: Over the years, the market strategies of herbal mixtures or products in different ways have captured people’s attention in testing the efficacy of these products. Some traditional healers go on the street advertising their products by sharing handbills, pasting their posters everywhere in the town, or even employing marketing agents that will help them display their products on the television, different social media platforms. Marketing promotes business because of the awareness it creates for people and the visibility of a product is usually enhanced with an advertisement