WHO calls for caution with traditional cures

Increasingly popular alternative medicines, from Chinese herbal remedies to spiritual therapies, are often misused and may harm patients, the World Health Organisation says.

The United Nations health agency has called for further clinical research to establish the safety and efficacy of such products, consumed by up to 80 per cent of people in developing countries.

WHO urged its 191 member states to regulate traditional medicines and make them safer and more accessible. Only 25 countries have licensing systems to ensure quality.

"We hope to strengthen recognition of traditional medicines and their integration into national health systems," said Jonathan Quick, director of WHO's essential drugs and medicines policy. He said alternative or traditional remedies needed to be subjected to the same type of rigorous testing as modern pharmaceuticals.

"We need to get evidence and information so people can make a choice between different therapies."

Indigenous products and therapies, handed down through generations of Africans and Asians, have caught on in the West, despite the scepticism of some healthcare professionals.

"In North America, over one-half of the population has used or continues to use traditional medicine. In the last decade, in the United States and France, the use of various methods of complementary care has doubled," Dr Quick said.

Yet incorrect use of alternative therapies has caused deaths in wealthy countries, where more and more patients rely on them, according to the report WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2002-2005.

The herb Ma Huang (ephedra), used in China to treat respiratory congestion, was marketed in the United States as a dietary aid, but its long-term use "led to at least a dozen deaths, heart attacks and strokes", the report said.

"In Belgium, at least 70 people required renal transplant or dialysis for interstitial fibrosis of the kidney after taking the wrong herb ... as a dietary aid," it said.

Xiaorui Zhang, WHO coordinator of traditional medicine policy, said 70 countries regulated herbal medicines, up from 50 just four years ago.

However, she cited difficulties in conducting clinical trials of herbal remedies. Patients could often detect placebos, and quality control was tricky as products often used more than one plant, each containing different chemical compounds.

Dr Zhang, who is from China, said: "Western medicine came to China about 100 years ago.

"That Chinese people survived for thousands of years without Western medicine shows that it [traditional medicine] works."

- REUTERS

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