The World Health Organisation estimates that up to 80% of the world’s population uses herbal medicine for primary health care.
In China, traditional medicine is largely based on around 5.000 herbs wich are used for treating 40% of urban patients and 90% of rural patients. In India, where traditional health care systems are very strong, 400.000 registered traditional medical practitioners are in practice, compared with 332.000 registered doctors. In Africa, up to 80% of the people use traditional medicine. In industrialized countries, adaptations of traditional medicine are called ” Complementary ” or ” Alternative ” ( CAM ). In Europe, North America and other industrialized regions, over 50% of the population use CAM medicine.
More Statistics :
♣ In China, 30% to 50% of the total medicines are traditional herbal preparations.
♣ In Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Zambia, 60% of children with high fever resulting from malaria are treated with herbal medicine at home.
♣ In the United States, 158 million of the adult population use complementary medicines, and every year, about 17 billion dollars is spent on traditional remedies.
♣ In the United Kingdom, people spend 230 million US dollars on alternative medicine every year.
How about you ? Do you use traditional medicine for primary health care ?
March 5th, 2008 at 9:33 pm