Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Constantino Chiwenga says traditional medicine that treat cancer needs scientific examination.
The Vice President said this in Harare yesterday when he was paying his condolences following the death of Dr Noleen Mbuwayesango, the wife of renowned medical practitioner Dr Bothwell Mbuwayesango.
The Minister of Health and Childcare insisted that those claiming traditional medicine can cure cancer will not be overlooked, but their products must be subjected to scientific examinations.
Dr Chiwenga also added that as a ministry they were working on a solution to manufacture indigenous medicines that can cure cancer.
“Cancer is still a problem though it is being managed in some cases if you seek early treatment.
“We are working on a lasting solution on how we can manage such diseases. It is better that we manufacture these drugs locally. There are countries we are working with so that we can jointly manufacture these drugs.
“We are collaborating; the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Industry and Commerce as well as the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development to see how we can quickly come up with a solution,” said VP Chiwenga.
Meanwhile government is accelerating efforts to manufacture drugs locally for ailments such as cancer through the implementation of the triple helix model and is emphasising early treatment.
The triple helix model is the interaction between academia, industry and government to foster economic and social development, which is being vigorously pushed as part of efforts to attain an upper middle income society by 2030.