NACA, traditional medicine practitioners to fight AIDS
From MUAWUYA B. IDRIS, Katsina

THE National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) is working with traditional medicine practitioners to come up with traditional medicines for AIDS treatment, the executive chairman in charge of the committee, Professor Babatunde Osotihemin has said.
Professor Osotihemin told newsmen in Katsina that the federal government had already directed the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development to conduct research on different traditional medicines.
The executive chairman who acknowledged the contribution of traditional medicines in curing diseases however said the problem with the traditional practitioners is their inability to present the right medicine.
His words: “We recognise that within our system, there are traditional medical practitioners that can help in treating diseases. The problem we have is identifying who has the right medicine with the right potency”.
He further noted that “we have a lot of charlatans, they just come and present a traditional medicine but we later realised that those things were not quite correct”.
“The federal government has set up a system to test all the traditional medicines for treatment of AIDS”, he emphasized.
Professor Osotihemin explained that the campaign against AIDS embarked upon by government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has helped in reducing the number of HIV/AIDS cases.
According to him, there are about 3 million people affected with AIDS in Nigeria.
Earlier, at the palace of Katsina emir, Professor Osotihemin called on the royal fathers to assist in the fight against AIDS.
Responding, the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji (Dr.) Muhammadu Kabir Usman called for prayers to overcome cases of the epidemic.