WS 04 - Traditional Medical Practices and Global Health

The WHO lists a high number of conditions treated by acupuncture and related "traditional medical practices" that implicitly refer to three deadliest threats to global health today:

(1) Currently, non-communicable diseases (NCDs, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes) are among the leading cause of mortality in the world.

(2) At the same time, a growing number of infections – such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhea and salmonellosis – are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them become less effective. Antibiotic resistance leads to longer hospital stays, higher medical costs and increased mortality is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today.

(3) Due to the increasing misuse of prescription opioids and heroin, the prevalence of opioid addiction is rapidly increasing, physicians currently all over the world understandably have questions about whether, when, and how to prescribe opioid analgesics for chronic and acute pain without increasing public health risks.
This workshop will address the active role of culture in health care and the impact of Traditional Medicines in diagnosis, prevention and treatment of these three major threats in a very concrete sense.