A SENIOR official from the Myanmar Traditional Medicine Practitioner Association said last week that traditional practitioners must adhere to high ethical and moral standards to provide safe and effective treatment for their communities.

U Maung Nyan, the association’s president, said practitioners should give treatment only for diseases they are familiar with and should not handle ailments that are beyond their skills to cure, including HIV/AIDS.

“They should refer patients suffering from diseases beyond their knowledge and practice to hospitals,” he said. “But they do have the right to provide basic treatment that relieves the patient from discomfort before referring them elsewhere.”

He said the first priority of traditional practitioners should be to reduce their patients’ disease burden.

“But they should not feel embarrassed or feel that their dignity or reputation has been harmed by referring patients,” U Maung Nyan said.

He said registered practitioners who give treatment for diseases they know nothing about are every bit as “bogus” as those who give treatment without possessing an official practitioner’s registration card.

He said practitioners also should avoid making false statements in their advertisements, such as claims that they can cure HIV/AIDS.

“In such cases the association will take action against the practitioner in collaboration with township officials and officials from the Department of Traditional Medicine and Council of Traditional Medicine,” he said.

He said problems with phony practitioners are most persistent in rural areas where many people provide traditional medicines and treatment based on book knowledge and conjecture.

U Maung Nyan said patients should make sure they seek treatment only from registered traditional medicine practitioners.

“Bogus practitioners can give treatment only if people accept it,” he said.
He said there are many traditional medicine clinics at the state and division level, as well at the district and township levels, run by the Department of Traditional Medicine that provide treatment and can field complaints about unregistered practitioners.

U Maung Nyan said registered practitioners should also strive to continuously improve their knowledge of traditional medicine both theoretically and practically to help develop the role of traditional medicine in Myanmar.