Concern About WHO Messaging at First Traditional Medicine Summit 
Health Systems 21/08/2023 •
WHO Traditional Medicine Summit 2023

PUNE, India – The World Health Organization’s (WHO) two-day summit on traditional medicine, held last week in the Indian city of Gandhinagar, was an attempt to start a dialogue about how to integrate evidence-based traditional medicine into modern medicine – but many were disconcerted about social media posts from the global health body that appeared to offer support for unproven treatments.

In addition, with India as summit co-host, Indian officials and programmes that have made controversial, unscientific claims were also given prominence.

At the start of the summit, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged delegates to “use this meeting as the starting point for a global movement to unlock the power of traditional medicine through science and innovation”.

“I urge you all to identify specific, evidence-based and actionable recommendations that can inform the next WHO traditional medicine global strategy,” said Tedros, adding that countries should commit to examining the best way to include traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) into their national health systems.

Dr Bruce Aylward, WHO’s Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage, also highlighted the need for a “stronger evidence base” that could enable countries to “develop appropriate regulations and policies around traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine.”

Despite WHO officials’ stress on evidence-based treatment, some of its social media messaging appeared to endorse contentious medical systems such as homeopathy. One such Twitter post (see below) had over 5.3 million views, and provoked thousands of comments.

Many critics said the post appeared to be promoting untested treatments. Timothy Caulfield, a Canadian professor of health law and science policy, said that he found the WHO tweet “frustrating”, and asked how naturopathy, homeopathy and osteopathy  could be considered “traditional”., and warned against “legitimizing harmful pseudoscience” such as homeopathy.

“The WHO social media posts are, after all, an extension of the organisation and might be seen as an official position of the organisation,” Dr Anant Bhan, a global public health and bioethics researcher based in Bhopal, told Health Policy Watch. 

“You cannot detract from your core messaging which is around evidence-based medicine and the need to support it, including for public health policy. Once that starts happening, it will cause confusion,” said Bhan, adding that many people would not be able to discern the finer details of the WHO tweet.

The WHO late conceded that its tweet “could have been better articulated” but did not remove it.

 

Controversial Indian officials and programmes

The summit also allowed co-host India to promote controversial officials at press conferences – most notably, joint secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) Lav Agarwal. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Agarwal repeatedly linked rising COVID-19 cases to a meeting held by a Muslim group, driving misinformation and stigmatization in an already charged religious environment in the country. 

Lav Agarwal (second from left), a senior health official in the Indian government who has been a prominent presence in the run-up to the traditional health summit was responsible for misinformation and stigmatization in the early weeks of the pandemic.

India’s Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) also announced at the summit that it is in discussions with Malaysia about how to cooperate on traditional medicine and homeopathy. The official inclusion of homeopathy in the Ministry of AYUSH has long been a subject of controversy in India. 

Integration opportunities and challenges

While this is the first global summit on traditional medicine, the WHO has made attempts to include traditional medicine since 2014 when the first global 10-year strategy for traditional medicine was approved, and Tedros told delegates that the summit is likely to be a regular event.

There is clearly a demand for such summits. Preliminary findings from the WHO Global Survey on Traditional Medicine 2023, which were shared at the summit, indicate that around 100 countries have TCIM-related national policies and strategies.  

“In many WHO member states, TCIM treatments are part of the essential medicine lists, essential health service packages, and are covered by national health insurance schemes.  A large majority of people seek traditional, complementary and integrative medicine interventions for treatment, prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, palliative care and rehabilitation,” the WHO noted in a media release after the summit, which ended last Friday.

The WHO envisions a complementary role for traditional medicine, one in which it can be used alongside modern medicine in preventive healthcare as well as rehabilitation. 

For example, Professor Stefano Masiero, who chairs the rehabilitation unit at the Padua University-General Hospital in Italy, told the summit that the integration of traditional and complementary medicine could create a comprehensive rehabilitation experience. 

Meanwhile, Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, told delegates at the close of the summit that they have “gently shaken up the status quo that has, for far too long, separated different approaches to medicine and health.” 

“By taking aim at silos, we are saying we will collaborate all the more to find optimal ways to bring traditional, complementary and integrative medicine well under the umbrella of primary health care and universal health coverage,” said Kluge, urging the need for “better evidence on the effectiveness, safety and quality of traditional and complementary medicine”.

But Dr Shyama Kuruvilla, lead for the WHO Traditional Medicine Global Centre, said “we have a long journey ahead in using science to further understand, develop and deliver the full potential of TCIM approaches to improve people’s health and well-being in harmony with the planet that sustains us.”

India currently holds the presidency of the G20 group of countries and the Traditional Medicine Global Summit coincided with the meeting of the health ministers of the G20 countries, who represent around two-thirds of the world’s population.

Image Credits: WHO, Ministry of AYUSH, India.

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