Materia Medica Malaysiana

Modernise traditional medicine, services’l

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20: Traditional medicine products and services should be integrated into mod-
ern healthcare as their usage has been found to be beneficial, Deputy
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today.


"Traditional and complementary medicine is long-term in nature, with a philosophy that advocates consistent life-long care rather than once-off remedies," he said.

Abdullah was speaking at the launch of the Fifth International Conference on Traditional and Complementary Medicine today.

Departing briefly from the text of his speech, he said his wife Datuk Seri Endon Mahmood was happy and doing well as a result of her cancer treatment which applied a mix of modern and alternative medicine.

"My wife receives her treatment in Los Angeles where she is treated by both an oncologist and traditional medicine practitioners.

"They combine their expertise and come up with a holistic approach in treatment.

"Whenever a herbal remedy is prescribed, the oncologist will first be consulted. My wife seems to be doing very well under the treatment," he said.

Most doctors of modern medicine, however, remained sceptical over traditional or alternative medicines, which have been widely accepted by lay people.

Abdullah said in order for traditional medicine to gain acceptance, products and services ought to be subjected to standards.

"This involves testing, user acceptance and high-quality production processes," he said.

He said Malaysia should also offer itself as a "test bed" for the integration of traditional medicine into modern medicine.

At a Press conference later, Abdullah said makers of traditional medicines should not make general claims that their products could cure any disease.

"A lot of products make general claims that they are good for overall health and well-being, or claim that they can cure a thousand and one ailments.

"They should be more specific and also have guidelines on consumption so that people don't take too little or more than they should," he said.

Abdullah added that Malaysia's investments in biotechnology, such as in the BioValley project, would complement the development of the traditional medicine industry.

"Using biotechnology and science, traditional medicine can be accepted as a part of modern medicine and receive acknowledgement as an industry that is scientifically-based." He also praised the Health Ministry for its move to set up a Traditional and Complementary Medicine division, to be operational in January.

The move is to co-ordinate all aspects of traditional medicine, such as research, practice and product regulation, which were currently under the ambit of different departments.

Earlier, Abdullah launched the ministry's global information hub on traditional and complementary medicine, available at www.globinmed.com The on-line hub is to eventually become a worldwide database on alternative medicines and treatments. Currently, information is limited to Malaysian content, obtained from local universities.

The Health Ministry is also working on a mechanism to protect information in the database from abuse and to protect the intellectual property rights of those who contribute to the database.

Abdullah, with Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng, also witnessed the signing of letters of intent by the National Institute of Natural Products and Vaccinology (under the ministry), Pharmaniaga Bhd and Quintiles Ltd. Quintiles is a USbased pharmaceutical contract research and development company providing clinical expertise.