Open Letter to the WHO-Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen

Dear Regional Director Dr. Kluge,

on the WHO-Europe website, when searching on the topic of Traditional Medicine (TM), there is NO single entry! – On the other hand, the new Global Center for T&CM in India refers to your website as "Naturopathy" and "Homeopathy". When I enter these search terms on the WHO-Europe website, no result is found. This is not acceptable...

Europe is a continent with a rich history of Traditional Medicine. This includes, among others, the three healing systems: Homeopathy, Anthroposophical Medicine and Traditional European Medicine – a strong cultural heritage! Furthermore, there are many other healing methods that have been added through global exchange. Today, Traditional Medicine is used and further developed with great success in all European countries. None of this can be found at WHO-Europe`s website!

However, the situation is completely different at WHO-International website: The 2014-2023 strategy on Traditional and Complementary Medicine even has a definition. There are benchmarks for healing systems and methods, a section for herbal monographs and meanwhile a separate chapter in the new ICD-11 system! Currently, countries like China, India or South Africa are asking for an extension of the strategy and suggesting a rewrite of the WHO-T&CM strategy, which should go until 2035.

For me, the following questions therefore arise, which I would like to discuss with you in a personal meeting:

1. Why does WHO-Europe ignore Traditional Medicine?
2. Why are WHO's own definitions, existing knowledge and categories not propagated in Europe?
3. How do you see the problems in the changing interpretation of terms such as "sustainability", "evidence" and "cost-benefit analysis"?
4. Why are the low-cost and long-used T&CM measures for improving health not being researched and propagated in Europe, especially for standard programmes such as "obesity", "diab.mell.2" and other NCD diseases?

There is certainly much more to discuss, but I would be very pleased if you would agree to a meeting, preferably in Berlin.

When would a date be available for this?

Yours sincerely
Nora Laubstein
President
Schöneck, März 2023