Access to the complementary medicine – Challenges and oportunities in Cuba

Traditional and Complementary medicine (T&CM) is an important and often underestimated part of health care found in almost every country in the world and the demand for its services is increasing. Complementary medicine (CM) of proven quality, safety and efficacy, contributes to the goal of ensuring that all people have access to care.

The objectives were to show the importance of the T&CM access for people around the world, how to get the access, to explain World Health Organization (WHO) Strategy related with this subject, besides that, to illustrate Cuban experiences with the integration of T&CM in the health system taking into account the challenges and opportunities.

In order to explain the objectives, the factors involved for getting access will be shown, such as: policy and regulations, the knowledge about appropriate use, cost, among others. Moreover, the Cuban health system, which is for all the people, will be illustrated as an example. There are different levels of health care (primary, secondary and tertiary level), the regulations are based on risk approach, T&CM is included in the list of essential medicines, and Traditional Medicine is an official specialty. There are some challenges for rational use like, the fulfilment of agricultural and manufacturing practices for all the practicians.

In general, health systems around the world should take care about the use of T&CM based on the quality, safety and efficacy.

 

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Conflict of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Publication History

Article published online:
16 November 2023