BUJUMBURA: September 1st (ABP) – Burundi celebrates on September 1, 2023, the 21st day dedicated to traditional medicine in Africa, the Minister of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, Mrs. Sylvie Nzeyimana, said in a statement she released on August 30, 2023. The theme of this 21st day is “The contribution of traditional medicine to health and welfare for all”.
The theme fits into the current context, as long as traditional practitioners are mobilized to contribute to the “various epidemics and pandemics of human and animal diseases” which are currently hitting the world without sparing Burundi.
The minister in charge of health recalls in her statement that Burundi has integrated traditional medicine into its national health policy, regulating the practice of traditional practitioners in that sense.
Minister Nzeyimana notes, among other frameworks, the ministerial ordinance in relation to intellectual property which includes the knowledge of traditional practitioners and the presidential decree which regulates traditional medicine and the art of traditional practitioners which stipulates the establishment of the National Network of Associations of Traditional Practitioners and its provincial branches which are already in place.