Govt of Italy takes note of alternate medicine despite protests by scientists.

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Italy moves to control alternative medicine

 

ANSA) - Rome, August 15 - Italian legislators are putting the finishing touches

to a bill to regulate the practice and teaching of alternative medicine, a move

which is strongly contested by top scientists and doctors .

 

The bill seeks to provide greater safeguards for the public while at the same

time incorporating tried and tested methods into mainstream, state-backed

healthcare .

 

Francesco Lucchese, of the centrist UDC party, said he was optimistic that the

bill - drawn up by opposition and majority MPs - would be approved by parliament

by the end of the year .

 

It has taken almost two years for the 19 legislators who worked on the bill to

hammer it, opposition Daisy party MP Gianni Vernetti said. "But we're happy with

the result because in the meantime we've gathered a large consensus among MPs,"

said Vernetti .

 

The bill calls for alternative treatment to be divided into two different

categories: specialties that can only be practiced by doctors; and therapies

that can be administered by non-medical specialists, under the umbrella heading

'non conventional therapies' .

 

In addition, the bill tasks the health ministry with setting up special

commissions to regulate the sector and monitor schools which train specialists .

 

 

The bill has come under fire from a group of top Italian doctors and scientists

who warned recently that the spread of alternative medicine risked depriving the

sick of effective cures .

According to the Group 2003, promoting the teaching of homeopathy, pranotherapy

and popular cures based on herbs and flowers in universities is potentially

disastrous .

 

"Just when scientific medicine is having its biggest successes, daily medical

practice risks being ruined by approaches that have nothing scientific about

them and which involve considerable risks," a statement said .

 

Nevertheless, recent surveys show that alternative medicine is steadily gaining

ground among Italians and the industry connected to the trend is booming .

 

The National Bioethics Council said in a landmark statement recently that it was

sometimes ethical for doctors to direct their patients towards what it called

"other therapies." But the Group 2003, which has top immunologists,

pharmacologists and orthopaedic doctors among its members, said that modern

medicine was based on centuries of scientific knowledge .

 

"With initiatives like those being discussed in parliament we risk making the

public believe that alternative medicine can be put on the same level," they

said .

 

However, MPs argue that their legislation is in line with European Union

guidelines and they also point to the need to regulate the sector in view of

growing public demand for alternative therapies .

 

The World Health Organization has also highlighted the need for greater

regulation of all strands of medicine and has expressed its support for

alternative options .

 

"WHO is in favor of both traditional and alternative methods when their

effectiveness has been shown and there is no risk of adverse reactions," said

the report .

 

Although alternative therapies have been used for years - sometimes centuries in

the case of treatments such as acupuncture - they have enjoyed a boom in the

West over the past few decades .

 

 

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