Use alternative approach to fully open up

About two years ago, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on an unprepared health system world over. 

Clear treatment options in Conventional Medicine (CM) were not known and there was a lot of gambling as the health care system sought to find what works.

 For example, Anthony Fauci of Centres for Disease Control (CDC), at one point said masks were not effective in reducing the infection of Covid-19, only to turn around later and say they are actually effective. 

In this kind of quest for solutions to combat the pandemic, many people resorted to Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM). 

It is important to note that while conventional medicine is the commonest, CAM and CM have worked alongside each other throughout history and are the two major types of medicine which foster healing in the world today.
CAM is classified into alternative spiritual medicine and complementary medicine. 

The alternative spiritual medicine includes church healing principles, traditional spirituality, meditation and yoga. Many powerful global figures openly and committedly use spirituality as part of their daily routines. 

Church healing principles include Holy Communion, laying on of hands and anointing oil for the sick. On the other hand, Complementary Medicine includes nutrition and herbal medicine.
Over the years the number of people resorting to CAM options such as food supplements has drastically increased. 

A recent 2021 study done by the NCBI (National Centre for the Biotechnology Information) in the United States, on CAM for Covid19 showed that there was a surge in demand for the CAM information and products during the global pandemic. The numbers increased because there was low preparedness and emergency response from the conventional health system. 

Nations in South Asia had 80 percent of their populations resorting to CAM and the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than 80 percent of the African population relied on CAM for the treatment of Covid-19.  

WHO even approved the herbal drug of Artemisia Annua (sweet wormwood) for the treatment of Covid-19. A study conducted in Norway (Europe) for CAM showed that over 40 per cent of their population used ginger, prayers and fish oils during the pandemic. 

In Uganda, herbal medicines such as Covidex and herbal steaming were widely used. Nutrition was also highly emphasized as a key treatment option for Covid-19. 

Opposition leader and medical doctor, Dr Kizza Besigye, recommended several nutrition options. These included garlic, lemon, ginger, vitamin C supplements and cinnamon mixtures. 

Statistics show that globally, 70 percent of low and middle income countries rely partly or entirely on the use of CAM to treat health problems. There is no country that openly brought this out like Tanzania which promoted the harmonious use of both the CAM and CM therapies. As a result, the nation never locked down for a day while Covid19 ravaged the rest of the world. 

Under the reign of the Late Dr Pombe Magufuli, Tanzanian citizens were openly encouraged to seek alternative therapeutic solutions. The President himself took off time to pray and fast as a first response to the news of an impending pandemic.

With CAM and CM working harmoniously alongside each other to provide solutions to the pandemic, Tanzania prospered greatly during the pandemic, rising from a developing country to a middle income nation.  

Uganda needs to be honest enough to recognise that it is not be able to solely rely on the CM approach when it still has difficulty purchasing vaccines which are very costly. 

Statistics show that Uganda has been depending on development partners like GAVI, which contribute close to 59 percent of resources to immunisation, pre- Covid-19 pandemic. 

Therefore, the CAM approach is cheaper and easier to sustain for a nation like Uganda, and it should be aggressively researched and promoted.

Uganda’s motto, For God and My Country, reflects the spiritual backbone upon which the nation is hinged. The nation’s forefathers obviously recognised the central role that spirituality plays in national advancement. Besides, there are many people in Uganda who successfully use spiritual solutions to manage their health problems. 

This makes the spiritual alternative of CAM also sustainable if it is investigated and found to be effective. Leaders should therefore strongly consider CAM therapy for a safe and faster opening up in addition to other strategies. 

Chris Mwanje, Complementary and Alternative Health Specialist.