Issued by National Ministry of Health
17 March 2006
Research and development of African traditional medicine should be one of the main priorities for research in the South Africa, Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in a speech to the conference of researchers and research-funders in Pretoria today.
The two-day (March 16-17) conference is convened by the Department of Health to decide on the priorities for research in the country and is attended by representatives of United Nations agencies, donor organisations and various South African research bodies.
Understanding that we are Africans with a particularly history dating back several centuries, Minister Tshabalala-Msimang said South Africa needs to pay attention to those things that sustained the health of Africans throughout their history of denied access to health and other basic services.
She said the conference that there is a need to invest resources and efforts into the research and development of African traditional medicines which have been suppressed through several years of colonialism and apartheid.
"No one will do this work for us. No one can reclaim our dignity on our behalf. There is a great deal of literature on Indian or Chinese traditional medicine. We need to establish those things within African traditional medicine that add value to management of diseases and improvement of health," said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
She said there were many health challenges facing the country and the continent researchers need to be broadminded in their approach and diversify their interventions against these challenges.
"Our success in the research and development of African traditional medicine will probably be the best contribution the health sector can make to the African Renaissance," said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
She also called for more research to be conducted on behavioural science to establish best interventions that can be implemented to modify lifestyles and prevent the spread of various infections and development of chronic diseases.
"We need to establish the best measures we have to take to modify our own behaviour or lifestyles that puts us at risk of contracting communicable diseases like TB and AIDS and developing non-communicable illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension," said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
She noted the disparities that still exist in the allocation of resources for research with less than 10% of global health research spending devoted to 90% of the global burden disease affecting people in developing countries.
"We also have deficiencies in the health systems which receive little or no attention from donor organisation; international organisation and local research institutions. These areas include infection control in our health facilities, integration of health information systems and improving efficiency in the utilisation of resources available in the public and private health sector. We need to focus on research that improves the functioning of the health system as a whole," said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
Contact Sibani Mngadi 082 772 0161
Notes for Editor
Some of the organisations represented at the conference were the following:
United Nations agencies - World Health Organisation and UNICEF
Funding partners - DFID, USAID, and European Union
SA research organisations - Council for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR),
Health Systems Trust (HST)
Human Science Research Council (HSRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)