Perceptions, readiness and recommendations of traditional herbalists to integrate traditional and modern medicine in controlling COVID-19 epidemics in Northeast Ethiopia: An interpretive qualitative study
Authors: Kassaw Mesfin Wudu , Mohammed Mohammed Hussen , Mohammed Ousman Ahmed 
Published: December 2022

Background

Traditional medicine is an approach that has unique knowledge and beliefs which incorporates plant, animal or mineral based medicines that applied alone or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses and maintain well-being. Suggestions from clinical practices and researches shown that integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine played an important role in China’s successful control of COVID-19. Despite such evidence, the Ethiopian minister of health prohibited traditional herbalists from using traditional remedies for COVID-19. However many of the traditional herbalists and the community requested the government frequently to try traditional medicine for COVID-19. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions, readiness, and recommendations of traditional herbalists on the effect of traditional medicine on COVID-19 and to select the promising remedies for pre-clinical study.

Methods

The study design used was an interpretive qualitative study. An in-depth interview was employed to gain access to the traditional herbalists’ experiences, perceptions, readiness and their recommendations. Traditional herbalists who lived in the North Wollo Zone were interviewed about the probable medicinal plants that can treat COVID-19. An inductive qualitative content analysis was conducted.

Results

From the in-depth interview with traditional herbalists, 4thematic frameworks were developed. Those major themes are;(1)perception of traditional medicine practitioners about COVID-19;(2) hypothesizing potential traditional remedies to treat COVID-19;(3)traditional practitioners recommendations for the community, and (4) integration of traditional and modern medicine. There was no pronounced difference in opinion among traditional herbalists about COVID-19 signs and symptoms, mode of transmission, and source of information about the epidemics.

Traditional herbalists had not planned to treat COVID-19 because of the minister of health’s prohibition of using traditional remedies. However, the traditional herbalists gave their remedies to minister of health, research institutes, and universities to get approval after the necessary procedures or laboratory investigations including toxicity studies. Despite the interest of traditional herbalists, currently, traditional medicine is not anymore economically and professionally useful for traditional herbalists because of many factors including the Ethiopian People Democracy Republic Front’s (EPDRF) government negative attitude, and its domination by the western medicine. Traditional herbalists were unsure which remedy might treat the COVID_19 but they believed that plants that were used to treat cough, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and other respiratory infections might be used to control the signs and symptoms of COVID-19. If there is potential traditional remedy for COVID-19 from the traditional herbalists, integration of traditional medicine (TM) and modern medicine (MM) may be compulsory to manage COVID-19 effectively.