07.01.02
The WHO Launches First Global Strategy On Traditional & Alternative Medicine
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, Switzerland, traditional medicine is becoming more popular in the northern part of the world and up to 80% of people in the southern part of the world use it as part of primary healthcare. This situation, WHO said, has raised concerns among health practitioners and consumers on the issue of safety, above all, but also on questions of policy, regulation, evidence, biodiversity and preservation and protection of traditional knowledge. In response to this, the WHO has launched a global plan, which provides a framework for policy to assist countries to regulate traditional or complementary/alternative medicine (TM/CAM) to make its use safer, more accessible to populations and sustainable.
“About 80% of the people in Africa use traditional medicine. It is for this reason that we must act quickly to evaluate its safety, efficacy, quality and standardization—to protect our heritage and to preserve our traditional knowledge. We must also institutionalize and integrate it into our national health systems,” said Ebrahim Samba, regional director for Africa at the WHO.
In wealthy countries, growing numbers of patients rely on alternative medicine for preventive or palliative care, according to the WHO. In France 75% of the population has used complementary medicine at least once; in Germany 77% of pain clinics provide acupuncture and in the U.K. expenditure on complementary or alternative medicine stands at $2.3 billion per year.
According to the organization, the global market for traditional therapies stands at $60 billion a year and is steadily growing. In addition to the patient safety issue and the threat to knowledge and biodiversity, there is also the risk that further commercialization through unregulated use will make these therapies unaffordable to many who rely on them as their primary source of healthcare. For this reason policies on the protection of indigenous or traditional knowledge are also also necessary.
The WHO TM/CAM strategy aims to assist countries to:
• develop national policies on the evaluation and regulation of TM/CAM practices;
• create a stronger evidence base on the safety, efficacy and quality of the TM/CAM products and practices;
• ensure availability and affordability of TM/CAM, including essential herbal medicines and
• promote therapeutically sound use of TM/CAM by providers and consumers.