The quest by many Ghanaians to live healthier, longer and happier lives has created a new generation of self-styled, quack and profiteering “doctors” all over the capital. I am sure many of them have taken this new and very lucrative trade to the regions and districts where they are exploiting the gullible public while our authorities look on helpless.
One can count as many as 15 different make-shift joints where these machines are established right under the noses of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) , the Ghana Standard Board and the Food and Drugs Board with these quack doctors luring passers-by into their tents to be “detoxified”.
In as much as it is important that we got ourselves “detoxified” once in a while, I am not amused by the carte blanche we have granted these people to mount, sell and use these machines on citizens of Ghana without any form of public notice as to the status of these practitioners under the statutes Food and Drugs or the Ghana Standard Board.
A few months ago, it used to be some Chinese electrical diagnostic machines that generated shocks all over one’s palms and fingers after one lays his palms on it while it was charged with electricity, then a metallic pointer is run around one’s fingers and palms to some specific spots.
One is then told, by these self-styled doctors, that one was suffering from one ailment or another and interestingly, they had all manner of Chinese herbal and orthodox medicines in boxes that they sell to their terrified “patients” with the promise that one’s problems were soon to be over when one used those stuff (with inscriptions, dosage, and instructions in an incomprehensible hardcore Chinese grammar).
The euphoria generated by these people and the persistence of the media for the mandated bodies to sanction them for these acts of lawlessness, crushed their empires only to be taken over by a more controversial “Detoxification” trade.
Today, the “Detoxifiers” are here and doing brisk business by far. I have seen some of these equipment in some medical facilities and I have no qualms with that since those managing and administering them are qualified and licenced medical officers who are recognised by the Ghana Medical Association, the Ministry of Health or the Association of Traditional Health Practitioners.
It is therefore totally unacceptable for us to sit back and watch these charlatans engage in this complex and non-traditional medical practice on daily basis.
My concerns are borne out of the fact that many of these people who administer the drugs, and handle this equipment are not trained practitioners by all measures. Some leave their clients more confused and frustrated than they met them.
They are exploiting the ignorance of the public for their financial gain. One is charged for dipping one’s feet in water with some weird-looking wires suspend from your arms, in the name of “Detoxification”. One is charged for the cost of special Chinese drugs to which they hold monopoly over their sources, (depending on which tent one entered).
I have had a nasty experience with one of these Chinese tonics while in my final year at the University of Ghana, Legon. It was so terrible that I had to be rushed to the hospital because I was passed out. At the hospital, the doctor cautioned me seriously against any future patronage of anything sold outside the pharmacy or the hospital with or without medical advice.
It took the nurses about seven (7) insertions on both arms before they could locate a vein to administer some bags of drip on me. I was discharged 3 days later to continue with my exams. Since that terrible experience, I have always been cautious of those who parade themselves in buses, schools, offices and market places selling all manner of concoctions and leaves, in the name of herbal or Chinese medicine.
Somewhere in 2008, I remember a TV3 story about a young man who lost his manhood through a surgical operation because he consumed an aphrodisiac that affected him terribly. Another young man reportedly died from the consumption of similar materials.
The Ghana Medical Association, the Ghana Standard Board, the Food and Drugs Board must collaborate to chase these people out of our system, same way they were tough on importers of turkey tail and other unwholesome food products some weeks ago.
We seem to have forgotten how a baby food product (milk) in China killed so many babies. The Chief Executive Officer of that company is serving a life sentence in Prison as of today.
We should not wait until the adverse effects of these people’s greed dawn on us before we take action.
P/s: what are those medicine sellers doing on the VIP Buses? Can’t we have a decent trip from Accra to Kumasi on these VIP buses without the intrusion, shouts and embarrassment from anyone? One had the guts tell me that a small spot (birthmark) I have below my left eyelids was the early signs of looming “kooko” (piles), and that if I did not buy the medicine, it was going to make me blind? Does he know how long I grew with that birthmark?
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