Ugandans are being forced to turn to herbal medicine due to the rising cost of drugs and their unavailability in public hospitals in the country, according to a report by Anadolu Agency.
Damali Nanfuka, a resident of capital Kampala, who spoke to the publication said that doctors were charging her 100,000 shillings (29 U.S. dollars) to treat her diabetes. She dropped plans to consult the doctor further and turned to an herbal medicine clinic.
“I went to an herbal medicine clinic where I was given medicine at only 40,000 shillings (11 U.S. dollars),” she said.
According to Patrick Kasadha, a pharmacist at a government hospital in the eastern Uganda district of Iganga, enough medicine is not stocked in government hospitals due to a paucity of funds.
However, the country’s Health Minister Ruth Jane Aceng said that some medical workers were stealing medicine and selling it to private clinics.
According to an Anadolu Agency report, herbal medicine shops in the outskirts of Kinshasa sell different concoctions, claiming they cure cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, malaria, and all sexually transmitted diseases.
Nakakawa, who manages such a shop says that her boss Andrew Luwanga, who calls himself a doctor, inherited the medical practice from his late father.
She claims that they sell medicine that relieves HIV Aids. They also treat toothaches without removing rotten teeth. Nakakawa even goes on further to say that they have medicine that makes barren women give birth.
Business is booming in Nakakawa’s shop because people can not afford to buy conventional medicine.
She says that government hospitals either lack medicine or whatever little they have been are stolen by medical officers and sold to private pharmacies.
