Govt prepared to admit value of traditional medicine

Govt prepared to admit value of traditional medicine

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Health Sujudi disclosed on Saturday
that the government is prepared to recognize the practice of
traditional medicine even as far as integrating it with its own
health services alongside conventional medicine.

For this Indonesia will turn to China, which has already
incorporated traditional medicine into its health services
system.

Sujudi told reporters at Soekarno-Hatta airport on Saturday
after returning from a visit to Mongolia and China that he was
impressed by the major role played by traditional remedies in
China in providing sound treatment to patients.

"The ministry will soon send pharmacologists to China to study
how they have been able to integrate the conventional and
traditional healing methods and possibly establish a special
agency to explore new ideas and possibilities for such a
project," he said.

"This does not necessarily mean that we will adopt their
methods, thus opening a new market for them, but more to learn
how they have manage to integrate both methods in their human
resources, hospital, medication and educational institutions."

Traditional healers, who have long been eclipsed by the rise
of modern and conventional medicine, have undergone a resurgence
in popularity in Indonesia in recent years not because they are
cheaper but rather that they have proven effective in treating
diseases which were thought to be incurable by conventional
medicine.

Despite their increasing popularity, their practice has not
yet been given the official seal of approval.

Sujudi admitted that unlike Indonesians, the Chinese have long
appreciated traditional methods as a complement to the
conventional medicine imported from the West.

"To us, traditional methods are still seen as a second choice
after all efforts at conventional treatment are exhausted ... So
we have to make extra efforts to get accustomed to these
traditional medicines," he said.

During his six-day trip to China, Sujudi said he witnessed the
use of both conventional and traditional medicines at China's
most modern Beijing Hospital.

There, patients are allowed to choose their preferred method
and doctors can specialize in either method, whose curriculums
are both incorporated in medical schools.

"A doctor can chose to be a western-style medical doctor or a
traditional medical doctor and each hospital can choose how to
develop its own methods of traditional treatment," he said.

Beijing Hospital, he said, has some 200 traditional pre-
processed medicines and more than 400 which are unprocessed.

The Indonesian government has long contemplated stepping up
efforts to develop traditional herbal medicines, better known as
jamu, which received support from experts including
pharmacologist Sardjono Oerip Santoso from the University of
Indonesia, and the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI).

Sardjono in a scientific paper last year pointed out that 940
of the 7,000 cultivated plants in Indonesia have been used as
medicinal plants.

The ministry later declared it would study the traditional
treatments to decide whether they could be incorporated into the
government's health services.

During his China swing, Sujudi signed memorandums of
understanding with China's minister of health in various fields
including human resources development, health administration and
traditional medical research.

In Mongolia, Sujudi attended a meeting of the World Health
Organization's Southeast Asian health ministers, including those
from Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Maldives, Mongolia,
Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

He said the meeting touched on health development in the
region, the link between health and poverty, health education and
psychological health. (pwn)