Modern and Traditional Medicine. Conflicts and Reconciliation

In Nigeria, for quite a long time, many medical scholars have advocated that attention should be given to traditional medicine as an alternative or complementary system of medicine for example, in the early 60ís, Prof. Adeoye Lambo, saw the need to integrate some aspects of traditional medicine into the country's health care system. Despite the growing interest in traditional medicine as an integral part of health care delivery, the bulk of it still remain unregulated. This observation may account for the contempt and distrust existing between the traditional healers and their orthodox counterparts, with each group claiming supremacy and relevance over the other. In Nigeria modern medicine continues to remain costly, heavily bureaucratised and elitist-oriented with large parts of the populace continuing to visit traditional clinics and healing homes in order to find succour and solace in the hands of the uncurbed and poorly regulated traditional healers. It is the view of the author of this book that some form of regulation between the two systems is necessary, to begin the debate the following questions are addressed here: What constitutes traditional or modern medicine? What are the criticisms against them and how are they refuted? How do you identify the beneficial, neutral, harmless and harmful aspects of the practice of indigenous medicine? What aspects of these, should or should not be integrated? What are the modifications the orthodox practitioner has to make? What are the problems and prospects of integration?