Indian Council of Medical Research - National Institute of Traditional Medicine (ICMR-NITM) will organise a two-day stakeholders convention on Integrative Health Solutions for Infectious Diseases in Belagavi from Thursday.
It is aimed at identifying promising traditional medicine solutions from AYUSH systems against infectious diseases with a focus on viral hepatitis, dengue and chikungunya and for combating antimicrobial resistance.
“It is well known that Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Sowa-Rigpa, Homoeopathy and other forms of traditional medicinal practices are well appreciated for treating non-communicable and lifestyle diseases. However, the potential of drugs used in these systems against the most concerning communicable diseases has, by and large, remained underestimated. The convention aims to initiate a fresh discussion,” ICMR-NITM director Subarna Roy has said in a release.
The convention, a first of a kind being conducted by ICMR-National Institute of Traditional Medicine will bring together the top brass of AYUSH systems, experts from conventional, traditional and integrative health systems, reputed clinicians, policymakers and top researchers in the focused three areas of communicable diseases to deliberate, discuss and identify the promising traditional leads for these diseases that can be seamlessly integrated into the mainstream clinical management of these conditions. This will require collation of evidence and may also require identifying and filling in research gaps that may be needed to achieve the goal of integration.
Secretary of Ministry of AYUSH Rajesh Kotecha will chair the meeting. Secretary of the Department of Health Research and Director-General of ICMR Rajiv Bahl will address the convention virtually.
Director-General, Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Rabinarayan Acharya, Director-General, Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS), N.J. Muthukumar, Director-General, Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM), N. Zaheer Ahmed and Director-General, Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), Subhash Kaushik will participate.
Each one of the councils will also be represented by domain experts in each of the three focused areas. Executive directors and representatives AIIMS located in various parts of the country will be part of the deliberations and discussions. Experts from conventional as well as traditional medicine will deliberate on the second day of the convention and make recommendations on the future course of research and trials. The AYUSH-ICMR collaboration will help strengthen the efforts made for integrative health research that has begun with the launch of Centres of Excellence in various AIIMS recently, Dr. Roy has said.
