Director General of World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the setting up of the Global Centre of Traditional Medicine in India.
- The Prime Minister thanked WHO and the DG for choosing India for the Global Centre of Traditional Medicine.
- Dr Tedros said that Ayurveda is an Indian heritage and it is a matter of happiness that India’s traditional knowledge is enriching other countries also.
- Traditional medicine: According to the WHO, traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness. Currently 170 WHO member states use traditional and contemporary medicines.
- Complementary medicine: The terms “complementary medicine” or “alternative medicine” refer to a broad set of health care practices that are not part of that country’s own tradition or conventional medicine and are not fully integrated into the dominant health-care system.
