Utdrag fra tale ved Verdens helseorganisasjon kongress
Utdrag fra tale ved Verdens helseorganisasjon kongress på tradisjonell medisin
(NB Tradisjonell medisin = folkemedisin, alternativ og komplementær medisin (KAM). Konvensjonellmedisin = skolemedisin
Address at the WHO Congress on Traditional Medicine. 7th November 2008
Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization
Traditional
medicine has strong historical and cultural roots, practitioners are
usually well-known members of the community who command respect and are
supported by public confidence in their abilities and remedies.
Recent
studies conducted in North America and Europe indicate that this is not
the poor man's alternative to conventional care. In the views of at
least some, the rise of alternative medicine is a quest for more
compassionate, personalized, and comprehensive health care.
It
is less easy to exploit when properly trained, experienced, and
licensed practitioners perform an ancient, culturally respected, and
useful art of compassionate care and healing. It tackles the root
causes of ill health, also in non-health sectors, thus offering an
upstream attack on threats to health.
The
time is right to view traditional medicine as a precious resource. It
needs to be respected and supported as a valuable source of leads for
therapeutic advances.
There
are global trends with global consequences for health, most notably
seen in the universal rise of chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as
heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and mental disorders. For these
diseases and many other conditions, traditional medicine has much to
offer in terms of prevention, comfort, compassion, and care. The time
has never been better, and the reasons never greater, for giving
traditional medicine its proper place in addressing the many ills that
face all our societies.
Thank you.