China and a number of African countries have adopted a plan of action for co-operation and development of traditional medicine, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim M. Samba, has announced. 
Dr Samba told reporters in Brazzaville, Congo, that the cooperation plan was adopted at the first China-Africa Forum on Traditional Medicine convened from 20-22 October in Beijing. Twenty-one African Health Ministers (or their representatives) and a high-level WHO delegation led by Dr Samba participated in the Forum, the final report of which was released Thursday.

Dr Samba stated that the action plan, adopted by consensus, covered human capacity building, Intellectual Property Rights related to traditional medicines, research and development activities, commercial production and trade-related issues, as well as exchange of visits, among others.

Also under the action plan, specific projects will be formulated by individual countries and implemented through the signing of bilateral agreements based on the principles of equality, mutual respect, partnership, mutually beneficial relations, and the sharing of results.

"We are excited by the adoption of this Sino-African cooperation plan because of its potential to boost the development of African traditional medicines to the benefit of the vast majority of Africans" said Dr Samba.

" For more than 80 per cent of Africans, traditional medicine is the first or only resort. There is clinical evidence which indicates that traditional medicines are effective for the treatment and/or management of some health conditions such as malaria, sickle cell anaemia, diabetes and HIV/AIDS, among others. WHO will continue to support further research to evaluate the safety, efficacy and quality of these medicines so as to facilitate access to standardized African traditional medicines."

Traditional Medicine is one of the priority programmes of the WHO Regional Office for Africa which, in 2001, constituted a 12-member Regional Expert Committee on Traditional Medicine comprising two Traditional Health Practitioners and 10 other experts, including Modern Health Practitioners.

At its inaugural meeting in November 2001, the Expert Committee reviewed and approved documents developed as tools which could serve to raise the profile of traditional medicine in Africa, speed up its official recognition, and serve as the cornerstone for the development of policies and the integration of traditional medicine in the health systems of Member States.

For further information, please contact

Samuel T. Ajibola 
Public Information and Communication Unit 
World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa 
P.O. Box 6 Brazzaville, Congo. 
E-mail: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int (ajibolas[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int)
Tel: 1 321 953 9378; Fax: 1 321 953 9513