WHO hopes for Traditional Medicine in Beijing

"Beijing Declaration" from WHO Congress on Traditional Medicine Promotes Use in Primary Care

Summary:  The first Congress on Traditional Medicine of the World Health Organization (WHO) was convened in Beijing, China November 7-9, 2008. Participating were 1100 experts from 70 countries...The Congress promulgated the "Beijing Declaration," which also calls on countries to integrate conventional and traditional medicine.

"Both modern and traditional medicine have their advantages and weakness for health care," said Dr Zhang Xiaorui, one of the organizers of the Congress and Coordinator of Traditional Medicines at WHO's Department of Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies. "If national health care systems can include the advantages of both systems, it would benefit both patients and consumers." 

An address to the Congress by WHO director general Margaret Chan, MD took up this theme.

  "The two systems of traditional and Western medicine need not clash. Within the context of primary health care, they can blend together in a beneficial harmony, using the best features of each system, and compensating for certain weaknesses in each."

Read the Beijing Declaration, formulated at the WHO Congress of Traditional Medicine, at The Integrator Blog

Dr. Chan's speech was very moving. She spoke of how traditional medicine is in fact the only type of medicine available to many in Latin America, Asia and Africa and how many die from Malaria because Western medicines are not  available. Yet, traditional medicine is often preferred in developed countries because, she opined, Western medicine has become depersonalized and "hard hearted". Read Dr. Chan's complete speech to the WHO conference.