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About time - WHO condemns homeopathy (Read 4,055 times)
Aug 21st, 2009 at 1:30am
tucuxi   Ex Member

 
Quote:
People with conditions such as HIV, TB and malaria should not rely on homeopathic treatments, the World Health Organization has warned.

It was responding to calls from young researchers who fear the promotion of homeopathy in the developing world could put people's lives at risk.

The group Voice of Young Science Network has written to health ministers to set out the WHO view.

WHO TB experts said homeopathy had "no place" in treatment of the disease.


  There is no objective evidence that homeopathy has any effect on these infections

Dr Nick Beeching, Royal Liverpool University Hospital
In a letter to the WHO in June, the medics from the UK and Africa said: "We are calling on the WHO to condemn the promotion of homeopathy for treating TB, infant diarrhoea, influenza, malaria and HIV.

"Homeopathy does not protect people from, or treat, these diseases.

"Those of us working with the most rural and impoverished people of the world already struggle to deliver the medical help that is needed.

"When homeopathy stands in place of effective treatment, lives are lost."

Dr Robert Hagan is a researcher in biomolecular science at the University of St Andrews and a member of Voice of Young Science Network, which is part of the charity Sense About Science campaigning for "evidence-based" care.

He said: "We need governments around the world to recognise the dangers of promoting homeopathy for life-threatening illnesses.

"We hope that by raising awareness of the WHO's position on homeopathy we will be supporting those people who are taking a stand against these potentially disastrous practices."

'No evidence'

Dr Mario Raviglione, director of the Stop TB department at the WHO, said: "Our evidence-based WHO TB treatment/management guidelines, as well as the International Standards of Tuberculosis Care do not recommend use of homeopathy."

The doctors had also complained that homeopathy was being promoted as a treatment for diarrhoea in children.

But a spokesman for the WHO department of child and adolescent health and development said: "We have found no evidence to date that homeopathy would bring any benefit.

"Homeopathy does not focus on the treatment and prevention of dehydration - in total contradiction with the scientific basis and our recommendations for the management of diarrhoea."

Dr Nick Beeching, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, said: "Infections such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis all have a high mortality rate but can usually be controlled or cured by a variety of proven treatments, for which there is ample experience and scientific trial data.

"There is no objective evidence that homeopathy has any effect on these infections, and I think it is irresponsible for a healthcare worker to promote the use of homeopathy in place of proven treatment for any life-threatening illness."


 
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Reply #1 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 1:51am

Eamonn Shute   Offline
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I agree that this is a welcome move, but I wonder why they only mention those few diseases? Homeopathy doesn't work against any disease, so they should say so.
 

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Reply #2 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 3:01am

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Who (not WHO) is supposed to be promoting it?
 

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Reply #3 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 3:02am

Andy The Boss   Offline
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What's the attribution for that quote, tucuxi?
 

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Reply #4 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 3:09am

Andy The Boss   Offline
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Eamonn Shute wrote on Aug 21st, 2009 at 1:51am:
I agree that this is a welcome move, but I wonder why they only mention those few diseases? Homeopathy doesn't work against any disease, so they should say so.


Presumable it's the diseases the WHO is most worried about.
 

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Reply #5 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 4:55am

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When you say homeopathy does not work, do you mean it does not work any better than placebo (which can help)?
 
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Reply #6 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 5:07am

Eamonn Shute   Offline
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fascinating wrote on Aug 21st, 2009 at 4:55am:
When you say homeopathy does not work, do you mean it does not work any better than placebo (which can help)?

Yes.
 

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Reply #7 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 5:29am

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In that case they should use it (in the absence of anything better).
 
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Reply #8 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 5:53am

Eamonn Shute   Offline
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Can you think of any illness that has no better treatment? And anyway, wouldn't sugar pills be cheaper?
 

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Reply #9 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 12:41pm

alancalverd   Offline
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Duchenne muscular dystrophy, infantile colic, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Alzheimer's, congenital amaurosis....the list goes on for ages, but I'm sure you get the point.
 

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Reply #10 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 12:46pm

alancalverd   Offline
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Quote:
It [WHO] was responding to calls from young researchers who fear the promotion of homeopathy in the developing world could put people's lives at risk.


In other words, the headline is a response to a nonexistent problem expressed as a baseless fear by a bunch of zealots with no actual data.

I quite enjoy the company of VoYS members but I'd be happier if they put their excellent minds to solving problems instead of inventing scandals.

Quote:
We [VoYS] hope that by raising awareness of the WHO's position on homeopathy we will be supporting those people who are taking a stand against these potentially disastrous practices.


I.e  WHO is responding to VoYS who were quoting WHO in the first place.

Not exactly "evidence based"  news. More like a pointless space filler.

Which is a pity because there is indeed a point to be made. But you don't make a point just by making a noise.
« Last Edit: Aug 21st, 2009 at 12:53pm by alancalverd »  

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Reply #11 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 12:53pm

fascinating   Offline
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Quote:
Can you think of any illness that has no better treatment? And anyway, wouldn't sugar pills be cheaper?

Certainly there are better treatments, but the people cannot afford them.

Homeopathic tablets, delivered by earnest professionals who really believe they are doing good, would have a far bigger placebic effect than sugar pills.
 
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Reply #12 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 12:54pm
miranda   Ex Member

 
'The people'?  Who are 'the people'?   


AFAIK, homeopathy isn't cheap, either........
 
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Reply #13 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 12:57pm

alancalverd   Offline
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A medical friend gave "transfusions" of water to fellow PoWs during the last Japanese unpleasantness, and saved quite a few lives thereby. Doing anything is sometimes better than doing nothing.
 

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Reply #14 - Aug 21st, 2009 at 11:39pm
psiloiordinary   Ex Member

 
Ah - no evidence that Homeopathy does any harm?  WHO are just a bunch of incompetents and liars?

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Regards,

Psi

 
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Reply #15 - Aug 22nd, 2009 at 8:20am
tucuxi   Ex Member

 
It is from the BBC website

Quote:
"We are calling on the WHO to condemn the promotion of homeopathy for treating TB, infant diarrhoea, influenza, malaria and HIV.


These are major killers in Africa and diseases that ain't effected by the placebo effect. Supposed homeopathic malarial prophylactics are widely available for the desperate and the suicidal in the UK and in developing countries, and in wasn't that long ago the South African government was claiming beetroot juice could cure HIV.

I think that this sort of dangerous quackery should be exposed and condemned.
 
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Reply #16 - Aug 22nd, 2009 at 11:48am

alancalverd   Offline
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Let's try again. Who, exactly, is accused of promoting homeopathy for treating TB, influenza, malaria and HIV in Africa? (I've deleted infant diarrhea because it's not a disease but a symptom with a thousand causes, from the trivial to the incurably fatal, and in many cases plain water is as good a medication as any).
 

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Reply #17 - Aug 22nd, 2009 at 3:30pm
psiloiordinary   Ex Member

 
Homeopaths.

In Africa.

Exactly.

Your point?

Regards,

Psi

PS I hope this is trying enough
 
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Reply #18 - Aug 22nd, 2009 at 5:29pm

alancalverd   Offline
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My point is that the original story does not claim to have any foundation in observed fact. Everyone is telling everyone else that they think something is wrong in principle, but there's no assertion, let alone evidence, that anyone is actually doing it.

"VoYS supports WHO's condemnation of pyramid scams on Mars and calls on WHO to condemn them" would make as much sense.

There are instances of democratically elected African health ministers spouting utter drivel about beetroot juice, but that's just the obverse of undemocratically appointed European officials banning British beef exports or stating that airborne viruses cannot cross the Irish border. Politics is about convenience, not truth

But suppose for a moment that there really are people selling homeopathic remedies in Africa. The scandal is not that they are plying their trade, but that the "proper" pharmaceutical companies aren't pricing their products for the same punters. The market obviously exists. Basic rule of business: complaining doesn't sell - competing does.
« Last Edit: Aug 22nd, 2009 at 5:33pm by alancalverd »  

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Reply #19 - Aug 23rd, 2009 at 12:12am
psiloiordinary   Ex Member

 
Hi Alan,

just try googling it Alan.

Doesn't seem that unlikely that out of all those links some of them are not WHO plants.

Regards

Psi
 
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