Myanmar boosts development of traditional medicine

The just-ended 12th Myanmar Traditional Medicine Practitioners Conference in Nay Pyi Taw has set guidelines to encourage the development of Myanmar traditional medicine to penetrate not only domestic market but also overseas market. To win public trust and reliance in curing diseases using traditional medicine in the long run, the Myanmar health authorities are gearing up in taking such measures as forming traditional medicine practitioners association, conducting courses on producing high standard traditional medicine, holding seminars, workshops on Myanmar traditional medicine kit project, establishing herbal gardens across the nation and opening traditional medical hospitals and centers in regions and states. Myanmar President U Thein Sein has urged the practitioners in his message on the occasion of the conference to preserve, protect and promote the essence of Myanmar traditional medicine. Noting that health and fitness of the entire people is the main driving force in the national all-round development drive, he called for full trust and confidence in their long-accepted indigenous medicine, while having the awareness on the vital role of Myanmar medicine in public healthcare. Apart from rural folks, urban people are also accepting and relying more and more on the traditional medicine, he pointed out, believing that the development and advancement of the medicine at the service of Myanmar people is an encouraging sign and pride. He urged the practitioners to collectively raise the dignity and standard of the profession as their duties. As the Myanmar traditional medicine is playing a more and more important role in treating diseases in the country, the government has placed more emphasis on it, calling on traditional medicine practitioners to protect and preserve them from depletion and to ensure their perpetual existence. Myanmar is conducting research on treatment of six major diseases -- diabetes, hypertension, malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhea and dysentery through traditional medicine. To do research more effectively and on a wider scale to have the Myanmar traditional medicine standardized, the country holds traditional medicine practitioners conference every year to introduce the country's traditional medicine and its medical practices. At the same time, the practitioners are also urged to strive for the promotion of the standard of Myanmar traditional medicine to reach international level. Encouragement has also been made to set up large traditional medicine industries with the private sector to produce potent drugs for common diseases, herbal gardens for medicinal plant conservation and find means to treat patients with the combined potency of the Western and Myanmar traditional medicine. According to the health authorities, Myanmar has made arrangements for the development of the traditional medicine in line with the set standards, opening diploma courses and practitioner courses to train skilled experts in the field. A decade before, Myanmar's Institute of Traditional Medicine conferred diplomas on traditional medicine to those who had completed two-year theoretical course and one-year practical course. In 2001, Myanmar established its University of Traditional Medicine in Mandalay, the second largest city, where traditional medicine, anatomy and physiology, microbiology and medicine and Chinese acupuncture are taught. Meanwhile, Myanmar has set up the first national herbal park in the new capital of Nay Phi Taw to grow herbal and medicinal plants used in producing medicines for treating various diseases. An 81-hectare National Herbal Park was also established to meet international level. Over 20,000 herbal and medicinal plants of over 700 species from some 10 states and regions for producing medicines used in treating diseases like cholera, diarrhoes, dysentery, hypertension, diabetes, malaria and tuberculosis are being grown in the park. The Myanmar traditional medicine, composed of such ingredients as roots, tubers, bulbs, natural items and animal products, has in a historical perspective, represented the typical Myanmar culture and traditional value and norms. Myanmar traditional medicine is recognized as one of the principal contributors to public health and a genuine legacy left by ancestors.