WHO: Traditional Medicine is a Significant Part of Primary Care in Many Countries | Paris: Guimet Museum Exhibition on Traditional Medicines from Asia

A Summer of Firsts, Paris: First Exhibition on Asian Medicines at the Museum Guimet | Government of India hosts WHO first Global Summit on Traditional Medicine

The World Health Organisation, alongside the government of India, is hosting its first ever Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, from 17 to 18 August. 

“We need to treat traditional interventions with the same respect we give other Western medical interventions.” 

Dr John Reeder, Director of Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and Director of the Department of Research for Health, WHO  

Photo credit: Maya Plentz, Musee Guimet, Healing Arts Exhibit

Traditional Medicine at the WHO

Since 1976 the WHO has looked into the evidence of ancestral methods and indigenous medicinal systems. It has a core programme on traditional, complementary and integrative medicine. 

During the last World Health Assembly, member states requested the WHO to work toward a new traditional medicine global strategy, starting from 2024 to 2035. 

A new centre was set up in Gujarat, India, to scale up WHO capacities in this area of evidence-based traditional medicine.