Health ministry warns herbalists, media houses on drug adverts

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Health Ministry has cautioned herbalists and media houses from airing false adverts.

According to the Health Ministry, media houses that advertise non-approved herbal products will be liable to a fine of Shillings 20 million.

The fine is part of the newly approved Traditional and Complementary Medicines Act. President, Yoweri Museveni is yet to assent to the act.

While addressing journalists at the government owned media center, the State Health Minister in Charge of General Duties, Sarah Opendi, said all adverts of medicines shall be approved by the council.

The same council will be responsible for the activities of all herbalists to be appointed by the Health Minister. The National Drug Authority has previously faced challenges regulating the advertisement of herbal products.

Dr. Grace Nambatya Kyeyune, the Director for the Natural Chemotherapeutic Research Institute and also a board member at NDA, says they will now be able to regulate who sells what.

“We have been facing challenges where we could not control some herbalists because they claimed they were healers who offered therapeutic solutions to conditions and not medicine to treat diseases,” she said.

Opendi also says all herbal products will have to show the ingredients used in the manufacture of any drug.

According to data from the Health Ministry, it is estimated that over 60 percent of Ugandans use herbal medicine with one in every 200 people in Uganda depending on it.