• Submitted by: Luis Manuel Mazorra
• Health and Medicine
• 03 / 30 / 2012

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At present, the Traditional Medicine in Cuba has a total of 29 products apifármacos herbal and also pending the approval of other 5 that are expected to be added to the basic table of this specialty.

The lawyer Leonor Enríquez Menendez, head of the Department of Care Pharmaceutical Services, Ministry of Public Health, said in Havana that these products meet the nine most commonly used drug classes.

This, he added, of cough and cold, dermatological, sedatives, antihypertensives, haematinics, analgesics, diuretics, phlebotonics (for circulatory problems) and anti-infectives, which are sold without prescription in over two thousand community pharmacies exist in all municipalities.

According to a note published today in Granma, these are made in so-called Local production centers in each province, subordinate enterprises of Pharmacy and Optics, and try to answer the picture of health and morbidity (incidence of disease) of each territory.

Dr. Enriquez said that municipal centers are still far from meeting the demand of the population in many of these natural products, citing the example of cough and cold syrups oregano and sweet orange, and aloe creams used in dermatological treatments .

From medicinal plants, last year 2011 there were more than 43 million different assortments of these drugs, he said.

In the creation of forms involving groups of experts from the Institute of Pharmacy and Food, University of Havana (IFAL), the Center for State Control of the Quality of Medicines (CECMED), Center for Research and Development medications (ICW), the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Public Health areas, among others.