Editorials

EDITORIAL: Regulate herbal clinics

arvs

Suspected fake drugs. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Use of alternative cures, especially from the East, for certain ailments appears to be gaining increasing acceptance among some Kenyans. This partly explains the increasing number of clinics offering non-conventional remedies even in middle class neighbourhoods in Nairobi.

But the practice of such medicine remains poorly regulated in the country, exposing patients to harm and exploitation.

As the case of a Chinese citizen arrested last Friday in possession of suspected fake anti-retroviral drugs in Nairobi shows, the current regulation regime is too weak to stop a rogue practitioner or an unscrupulous merchant out to push fake products among unsuspecting patients.

All the man needed to set up his Chinese Alternative Medicine practice in Kenya for 12 months was a licence from the office of the Director of Medical Services, copied to Immigration.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health has said that the suspect can be prosecuted under the Public Health Act.

However, that still won’t address the public health and safety challenges posed by rogue merchants of alternative medicine. What is needed is a tighter regulation regime to protect unsuspecting patients from harm or prevent a public health disaster.