The local government unveiled a cooperation center for traditional medicine yesterday, established in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO). This further forges a monumental partnership with the leading health authority to bring Chinese medication to a higher status in the world of international healthcare.
Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, recognized in her address the irreplaceable status of traditional medicine in modern medical use, which she stressed, should be “carefully regulated and integrated into the practice of modern medication.”
“Traditional medicine has much to offer, especially as a contribution to primary health care and universal coverage, and most especially at a time when chronic non-communicable diseases have overtaken infectious diseases as the world’s biggest killer,” she said.
She continued: “Clearly, to move into mainstream medicine on equally as trusted footing [as modern medicines], traditional medicines need a stronger evidence base. The need for stronger regulatory control extends from the products themselves, through the practitioners and practices, to those selling the products.”
As the 68-year-old head of the WHO disclosed, roughly 20 percent of member states have developed a well-functioning regulatory body for herbal treatments, and about 50 percent had established a “variable regulatory capacity”. Thirty percent of the healthcare agency’s members had no, or a merely limited, regulatory body in their territories.
Therefore, official regulation is urgently needed around the globe to ensure the quality and safety of herbal medicines, which are widely adopted in developing countries given their affordability and accessibility over their modern counterparts, Chan indicated.
Rather than comparing the distinctions between traditional and modern medication, she also advised that authorities should combine their merits into an inter-complementary approach to tackle health challenges that are overwhelming the current world.
Between 1999 and 2012, the number of WHO nations that had already introduced national policies on traditional medicine climbed from 25 to 69. Meanwhile a total of 73 of its members developed national research institutes on the application of medication, up from 19 at the beginning of that period.
“We need to modernize this rich resource and cultural heritage, and put it in its proper place in today’s world,” stressed Chan in response to occasional hostility against less regulated herbal medicines. Alexis Tam, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, spoke with medical professionals and experts from abroad in a forum on the heels of the center’s inauguration ceremony. The secretary said that the government has been proactively following the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023, which was announced by the international healthcare body two years ago in the region. The initiative urged different WHO members to formulate policies for the application of traditional medicine for public health.
Additionally, Tam pointed out the extensive acceptance of traditional medication among locals in the 2014 figures, saying that “the Macau citizens’ demand for Chinese medicines has been on the rise and they have an increasingly vital role to play in the local hygienic and healthcare system.”
According to Tam, 1.17 million out of the 4.14 million medical services that locals sought in that year involved the use of traditional medicines, amounting to 28 percent of all of those seeking medical services.
“[A reason] why the WHO would allow a collaborating center in Macau is because we are indeed doing well in practicing traditional medication, and we have resources as well,” Tam told journalists during a break in proceedings, adding that “it wasn’t easy to be granted such an establishment.”
However, it was suggested that some locals still prefer medical treatment on the mainland over local services. Tam believed that their preferences were due to their “personal habits” and had nothing to do with the availability and capability of local traditional practitioners.
The principal objective of the center at the moment is to offer training for professionals and practitioners in the field of Chinese medicine application. More than 300 officials and scholars from 27 countries witnessed yesterday’s inaguration and shared their insights in the forum that concluded at around 7:00 p.m. Workshops on clinical research into medical applications will continue until Friday. Staff reporter
Supplementary cooperation contract signed with mainland healthcare authority
Alexis Tam has inked a cooperation agreement with Professor Wang Guoqiang, commissioner of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, regulating the training of practitioners, strengthening management and related regulations in the realm of Chinese medication. The pact, the second of its kind, seeks to supplement the first agreement, which was signed in 2008.
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