WHO Opens Global Conference on Traditional Medicine, Highlights Role of AI and New Technologies
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday opened a major international conference on traditional medicine, arguing that emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help apply scientific scrutiny to centuries-old healing practices.
The three-day meeting, taking place in New Delhi, is examining how governments can regulate traditional medicine while using modern scientific tools to validate treatments that are safe and effective. The UN health agency says the initiative aims to better integrate ancestral healing practices into contemporary healthcare systems.
“Traditional medicine is not a thing of the past,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video message released ahead of the conference. “There is a growing demand for traditional medicine across countries, communities and cultures.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a separate message, said the summit would “intensify efforts to harness” the potential of traditional medicine. Modi, a long-time advocate of yoga and indigenous health practices, has strongly supported the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine, launched in 2022 in his home state of Gujarat.
Shyama Kurvilla, head of the centre, described the use of traditional remedies as “a global reality,” noting that between 40 and 90 per cent of populations in 90 per cent of WHO member states rely on them.
“With half of the world’s population lacking access to essential health services, traditional medicine is often the closest or the only form of care available to many people,” she told AFP in New Delhi.
WHO defines traditional medicine as the accumulated knowledge, skills and practices developed over time to maintain health and to prevent, diagnose and treat physical and mental illnesses.
However, many traditional treatments lack scientific validation, while conservationists warn that demand for certain remedies has fuelled illegal trafficking in endangered species such as tigers, rhinos and pangolins.
“WHO’s role is to help countries ensure that, like any other form of medicine, traditional medicine is safe, evidence-informed and equitably integrated into health systems,” Kurvilla said.
She added that traditional knowledge has already played a significant role in modern medicine, noting that more than 40 per cent of Western biomedical pharmaceuticals are derived from natural products.
Examples include aspirin, originally developed from willow tree bark, contraceptive pills derived from yam plant roots, and childhood cancer treatments based on compounds found in Madagascar’s rosy periwinkle flower.