A 60-year-old herbalist in Mankessim claims to have found a herbal remedy to cure all kinds of eye diseases including glaucoma - which has been said to have no cure - and even blindness.

The herbalist, John Kofi Sackey, also known as Odopee owns the Odopee Herbal Research and Learning Centre at Mankessim.

As opposed to other regular treatments for eye sicknesses, Kofi Sackey's method is very different, the Daily Graphic has reported. A herbal solution is drizzled over a piece of wood in a container which patients are supposed to stare at for a period of 10 minutes, 3 times daily.

After each 10-minute treatment, the patients are made to pace about for some time, followed by a two to three-hour rest before they resume subsequent treatment sessions.

According to Mr Sackey, some patients’ eyesights are restored on the first day of treatment while others take over a year to regain theirs, depending on the severity of their condition.

The Mfantseman Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Martin Daanko, said that although his methods of treatment hadn’t been investigated scientifically, the testimonies of cured patients along with what he had observed personally hinted of some efficacy in his treatment.

Mr Daanko also commended Mr Sackey for procuring more than 30 licences, certificates, testimonials, citations and recommendations from recognised institutions, including the Traditional Medicine Practice Council of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Health Procurement Unit, signed by a former Deputy Minister of Health, Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo.

In order to improve the credibility of Mr Sackey’s treatments, the Municipal Health Director, Emmanuel Asante-Aboagye, advised him to take patients that he ‘healed’ to the Saltpond Government Hospital for verification that they had indeed been cured completely.

Mr Sackey says he does not charge his patients for treatment sessions due to the plight they already face as a result of their impairment.

When further asked how he managed to cater for himself and family, he said the income generated from the treatment of other chronic diseases was his only source of income.

Mr Sackey has been in the field of herbal medicine for 46 years starting at the tender age of 10 thanks to his late father who worked as a herbal practitioner for 70 years.