NEW DELHI - Around 80 per cent of the world's population is estimated to use some form of traditional medicine and practices such as acupuncture and ayurveda. Yet, they lack reliable scientific evidence to back their claims of treatment, holding back their integration into global healthcare systems.
A newly announced Global Centre for Traditional Medicine by the World Health Organisation (WHO) seeks to remedy this by bringing modern science and technology into studying and promoting traditional medicines and treatments to improve public health, as well as promote sustainable development.
WHO and India signed an agreement on March 25 to establish the centre, which will cover all forms of traditional medicine, including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), in Jamnagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
It will focus on building "a solid evidence base for policies and standards on traditional medicine practices and products", help integrate them into health systems and regulate their "quality and safety for optimal and sustainable impact". An on-site launch of the centre will take place on April 21.
In a statement to The Straits Times, WHO said the centre will focus on four strategic areas to optimise traditional medicine's contribution to global health and sustainable development - evidence and learning, data and analytics, sustainability and equity, and innovation and technology.
This includes improving accessibility and usefulness of research evidence and systematic reviews by a global network of researchers and scientists. It will also develop educational resources to promote evidence-based awareness of traditional medicines and build the capacity of the workforce that uses them, besides adopting artificial intelligence and other innovative methods to identify, appraise and scale up innovations in the field of traditional medicines.
Explaining its choice of India for the centre, WHO said the country has played "a leadership role in convening cross-regional and global collaborations on traditional medicine and scientific advances".
India has committed an estimated US$250 million (S$339.2 million) to support the centre's establishment, infrastructure and operations. This includes 14.2ha of land in Jamnagar for a new building and premises in 2024, an interim office, and support for operational costs with a 10-year commitment.
The Covid-19 pandemic witnessed several claims of treatment using traditional medicine, but there is still no WHO Covid-19 treatment guideline that includes traditional medicine. WHO International Clinical Trial Registration Platform, a single-point access to information about ongoing and completed clinical trials worldwide, contains as many as 369 clinical studies on the use of traditional medicine to treat Covid-19.
"We expect that these ongoing research activities would inform the integration of traditional medicine in current and future pandemic response," WHO said. This includes Madagascar's herbal remedy, Covid-Organics Plus Curative, which was touted by its government. According to a WHO public statement in August last year, it was in phase three randomised trials and had produced "encouraging preliminary results".
Professor Anup Thakar, an Indian ayurveda practitioner and director of the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (Itra), said he expects the centre to "change the era of the traditional system of medicines". He told ST that research here would generate scientifically validated data that would further popularise the use of traditional medicines.
"This way, we (practitioners of traditional systems of medicines) can contribute to policymaking for health and improve the life of the people," he added. Itra will host the centre's interim office while the new centre is being built.
However, some have been critical of WHO's past engagement with traditional medicine, including those who feel that such medicines could replace proven drugs or be potentially dangerous. When WHO included TCM remedies for the first time in its list known as the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), some criticised the move as putting untested treatments in the same league as medicines that have undergone clinical trials.
"Giving credence to treatments that have not met those standards will advance their use but will also diminish the WHO's credibility," said an editorial in Scientific American, calling for these medicines to "undergo rigorous testing for purity, efficacy, dosage and safety".
Countries across the world rely on the ICD document, which came into effect on Jan 1, to set their healthcare agendas. The inclusion of TCM was the first instance of any form of traditional medicine making it to WHO's influential global medical compendium.
Responding to such criticism, WHO told ST it has always promoted the integration of traditional medicine of "'proven' quality, safety, and efficacy".
"The Global Centre for Traditional Medicine would support to understand these traditional systems of medicine with a lens of research and data, and at the same time, value the traditional knowledge and sustainable use of medicinal resources," it added.
