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Paidamoyo Chipunza, Harare Bureau
Government is considering making regulations for registering complementary medicines more stringent amid revelations that patients taking some of them were experiencing serious side effects, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo has said.
Dr Moyo said current regulations on complementary medicines were weak as they do not require products to go through rigorous assessments, which apply to modern medicines.
“We want to strengthen the authorisation process to make sure that the population is protected. We will not leave any stone unturned as far as complementary herbal medicines are concerned,” said Dr Moyo.
He said complementary medicines have been coming to Zimbabwe for some time, but the process has not been stringent compared to that of modern medicines.
Modern medicines have to go through clinical trials but complementary medicines do not require clinical trials.
He said these considerations were prompted by reports from local clinicians who after attending and interviewing patients taking these medicines discovered serious side effects.
Dr Moyo said some of the noted side effects include renal failure and liver toxicity.
“It has now come to light, that there are some products, which are being sold here in Zimbabwe coming from other countries and have not gone through rigorous testing and are causing serious side effects.
“So we now want to introduce a new format of approving all these other complementary medicines,” he said.
He said the new format include treating herbal medicines in the same manner modern medicines are treated to ensure their safety and efficacy.
Dr Moyo said if local herbal medicines were subjected to this rigorous process, medicines coming from outside the country must also go through the same process.
His remarks comes after Prophetic Healing Deliverance leader Prophet Magaya claimed that he had found a 100 percent organic cure for HIV and Aids as well as cancer- a claim he later retracted as it lacked scientific evidence.
A number of complementary medicines are already on the market in the country, majority of which come from India and China and are sold through network marketing.
Online Reporter