World Health Assembly approves a traditional medicine strategy

Publication date: WHO described training practitioners to recognize serious illness and refer patients to formal care.

The region’s member states received certification of interrupted indigenous wild poliovirus transmission.

India’s last wild case was in 2011, and regional certification followed sustained surveillance.

Vaccination campaigns and case monitoring supported the certification decision.

This milestone did not mean that all forms of polio risk worldwide had disappeared.

The strategy sought a stronger evidence base to help countries make informed decisions about traditional and complementary medicine.

The Assembly-backed strategy called for quality assurance, safety, proper use and regulation rather than blanket endorsement of treatments.

Assessing whether traditional and complementary practices work was explicitly among the strategy’s stated aims.

WHO announced a Public Health Emergency of International Concern after emergency committee advice.

The declaration called for international assistance to affected West African countries.