MAGAZINE Cover: Aesculapius, God of Medicine. Design by Peter Davies from a wood­ carving in Chur, Switzerland. Contents The staff of Aesculapius by H. Mahler 3 Malaysia's bomohs by J. Dauth 4 Balance between man and nature by X. Lozoya 8 The Science of Life by P N. V Kurup 12 Ayurvedic training by K. N. Udupa 15 WHO's Programme by R. H. Bannerman 16 New status for the hilot by A Mangay-Angara 18 Study Tour in China 22 Plants that heal by 0 Ampofo 26 News Page 31 World Health appears in Arabic. English. French. German. Italian. Persian. Portu ­ guese. Ru ssia n and Spanish. Articles and photographs not copyrighted ma y be reproduced provided credit is given to the World Health Organization. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect WHO's views. World Health. W HO. Av. Appia. 1211 Geneva 27 , Switzerland. 2 The staff of Aesculapius BY DR HALFDAN MAHLER Director- General of the World Health Organization If we had to justify the inclusion mately eliminated. The neglected 80 per include personal hygiene, mother and of traditional medicine within cent of the world's population have their child care (including family planning), the compass of the World rights too; they too have an equal claim nutritional guidance, immunization Health Organization, we need to health care, to protection from the against the major infectious diseases, ele­ look no further than the oppo­ killer diseases of childhood, to primary mentary treatment of all age groups for Isite page. The emblem of WHO superim­ health care for mothers and children, to the common diseases and injury, and a poses on the globe the staff of Aescula­ treatment for those ills that mankind has basic understanding of sanitation and pius, ancient god of medicine, entwined long ago learnt to control if not to cure. environmental hygiene. They can at the by a snake. The god's serpents were said Two years ago we in WHO pledged same time be weaned away from any to lick the wounds and lesions of the sick ourselves to an ambitious target: to pro­ practices that might pose possible risks in their sleep and thus to heal them. vide health for all by the year 2000. This for their patients. For far too long, traditional systems of ambitious goal is, quite simply, beyond The age-old arts of the herbalists too medicine and "modern" medicine have the scope of the present health care sys­ must be tapped. Many of the plants gone their separate ways in mutual anti­ tems and personnel trained in modern familiar to the "wise-woman" or the pathy. Yet are not their goals identical­ medicine. With but 23 years to go, and "witch-doctor" really do have the heal­ to improve the health of mankind and since it is unlikely that the least devel­ ing powers that tradition attaches to thereby the quality of life? Only the oped countries can even dream of having them; the pharmacopoeia of modern blinkered mind would assume that each enough of the orthodox type of person­ medicine would be poorer if one has nothing to learn from the other. nel, it is clear that unorthodox solutions removed from it all the preparations, Unfortunately that divergence be­ must be sought. The training of health chemicals and compounds whose origins tween the two systems of medicine has auxiliaries, traditional midwives and lie in herbs, funguses, flowers, fruits and almost exactly paralleled the division of healers may seem very disagreeable to roots. the world between the rich and the poor. some policy makers, but if the solution Let us not be in any doubt: modern Too often the privileged and well-to-do, is the right one to help people, we should medicine has a great deal still to learn living in large towns and cities, enjoy have the courage to insist that this is the from the collector of herbs. And already access to all the complex technology and best policy in the long run, and is by no a number of Ministries of Health, in the lifesaving apparatus of modern medi­ means an expedient acceptance of an developing countries especially, are care­ cine. Tens of millions of people have no inferior solution. fully analysing the potions and decoc­ such access; for them the traditional This is why WHO has proposed that the tions used by traditional healers to deter­ healer, the herbalist and the traditional great numbers of traditional healers who mine whether their active ingredients birth attendant are the only agents of practise today in virtually every country have healing powers that "science" has health care to whom they can turn. Not of the world should not be overlooked. overlooked. Whatever the outcome of only are most of the rural areas of deve­ For the most part they are already living such scientific testing, there is no doubt loping countries without a single quali­ in those remote communities, intimately that the judicious use of such herbs, flow­ fied physician, but on the average they involved with the life there, conscious of ers and other plants for palliative purpo­ do not have more than one auxiliary their neighbours' needs and trusted by ses in primary health care can make a health worker for 10,000 persons. In them. Many such healers have already major contribution towards reducing a some parts of the world, even when undergone elaborate training in ancient developing country's drug bill. modern medical care is available, the systems of medicine that had evolved The present issue of World Health majority actually prefer the traditional reliable methods of treatment and pat­ illustrates just a few of the aspects of healer, whom they know and trust. terns of medication long before modern traditional medicine in different parts of But the political winds of change that medicine came along. Other healers have the world, and indicates the contribution have been sweeping the world in recent had their skills handed down through the that its practitioners could make towards decades have been matched by winds of generations-the distillation of a surpris­ better health care, and primary health change in community health: a newly ing degree of practical knowledge, skills care in particular-an aspect to be high­ awakened global social conscience and wisdom about the physical, mental lighted at the WHO conference on pri­ requires that the health gap between rich and psychological ills of mankind. mary health care scheduled for 1978 at and poor within countries and between Provided they are willing, such tradi­ Alma Ata in the Soviet Union. countries should be narrowed and ulti- tional healers and local midwives can, at Given goodwill on both sides, such an a very moderate expense, be trained to army of healers, traditional birth atten­ <JA traditional herbalist sells his wares in a the level where they can provide ade­ dants and herbalists can help to make Sudanese market. (Photo WHO/D. Henrioud) quate and acceptable health care under our goal of health care for all by the year suitable supervision. Such training might 2000 attainable. Malaysias bon1ohs "To treat a mentally-ill young woman, the healer staged a kind of theatrical performance ln which her closest relatives and fellow-villagers each had a role to play" BY JURGEN DAUTH "The sky suddenly went dark Whether they are Malays, Indians or soul and their lifegiving power known as and the jungle fell silent", a Por­ Chinese, whether Moslems, Hindus, semanganat. They have not the least ,.. ..,...,"'"'...,. tuguese seaman wrote nearly 200 Buddhists or Christians, all of them doubt that illness is caused by evil spirits. years ago, describing his first en­ remain to this day firmly rooted in the And only the bomoh has mastered their counter with a Malayan bomoh. belief in spirits, their influence on the tongue, can overcome them or can con­ The magic of these spiritual healers may jure up guardian spirits to take their not run to such extremes but, all the place. t The medical treatment undertaken by same, the people of the Malacca peninsu­ ~ ·~~~ la ascribe supernatural powers to the '' the bomoh invariably revolves around a bomohs which are still being demon­ ritual exorcism. The bomoh hands out strated to this day, according to popular amulets against the "evil eye" or pre­ belief. Didn't a bomoh cause the hitherto scribes magic spells which are based on incessant monsoon rains to stop for a astrological lines and may be written on day at the request of the Ruler of Sara­ paper, the leaf of a plant or on leather wak? Didn't another invoke blazing sun­ hide. Texts and magic symbols may be shine for the open-air boxing match of taken from the Koran in the case of Mohammed Ali (formerly Cassius Clay) Moslems, while the Chinese Buddhists some three years ago, while rain poured and Taoists swear by the traditions of down in torrents all round the stadium? their homelands, and the Christians con­ The Malaysians are convinced that these tent themselves with reciting the Lord's things happened. Prayer backwards. However, Professor Paul Chen of the The bomoh may put a medium into a Medical Faculty of the University of trance in order to arrive at a diagnosis or Malaya foresees a more important he lets the illness declare itself from the sphere of influence for the traditional mouth of a hypnotised patient. Incanta­ medicine men. In his view the bomohs tory music on an instrument called a have always ha<;l an essential role to play game/an, dances and burnt offerings- in in the nation's health care, and he is con­ which the hair or finger-nails of the vinced that magic ritual and the psycho­ patient play a major role-complete the therapeutic understanding derived from ritual.