The World Health Organization condemns homeopathy
This was due a long time now: the World Health Organization (WHO) denounced homeopathy* and labelled it ineffective and not suitable as a cure for ailments such as cancer, malaria, AIDS, and even diarrhoea -a favorite among homeopaths. As the BBC reported:
People with conditions such as HIV, TB and malaria should not rely on homeopathic treatments, the World Health Organization has warned.
[...]
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.”

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.”
Well done to “Sense about Science” once again, and the WHO for finally doing something right…

Of course some supporters of this ultimate woo that is homeopathy, tried to defend themselves citing the evidence-base that favors homeopathy…
Paula Ross, chief executive of the Society of Homeopaths, said it was right to raise concerns about promotion of homeopathy as a cure for TB, malaria or HIV and Aids.

But she added: “This is just another poorly wrapped attempt to discredit homeopathy by Sense About Science.

“The irony is that in their efforts to promote evidence in medicine, they have failed to do their own homework.

“There is a strong and growing evidence base for homeopathy and most notably, this also includes childhood diarrhoea.”
HAHAHAHAHAHA! And the misinformation meter has just blown! Paula Ross (CEO apparently!) gets nominated for three awards at once: the award for being-the-most-out-of-touch-with-reality; the award for being-the-least-capable-of-understanding-science (also known as scientificus ignoramus award); and the award for producing-the-most-blatant-misinformation-statement-of-the-day. Vote now!

Hm, anyway, more on the diarrhoea thing in the coming days. Stay tuned for more laughing at homeopaths!

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Footnotes:
  1. * how did I miss that? []

6 Responses to this post
1. Jurgen Schwartz
We homeopaths laugh at you. You only show your own ignorance here. Poor deluded people who are pawns of the drug industry.
That’s a great comment Jurgen. Could you please poit to where exactly we show our ignorance?

Also, “poor deluded people”? Hahaha my irony fuse has blown! Deluded is one that keeps believing his pet theory when science and reality show otherwise. Hmmm, that actually makes homeopaths deluded. Funny thing, irony, don’t you think Jurgen?
3. Angelica Botzan
My father was successfully treated few years ago with homeopathic remedies for TB. He would never go for those chemical drugs, with a lot of side effects. In fact every time he has a health problem, he will see his Homeopath. He turned to homeopathy many years ago, when the alopathic medical system failed. He had a surgery to remove the polyps which were growing on his intestines. After a while he started to have pain again, and after a check uo he was told that he has new ones, therefore another surgery was scheduled. But my fater decided to see a homeopath and he did the right thing, because the homeopath helped him disolve those new polyps, and more importantly, he brought the body into balance, so that it won’t produce new ones, with no side effects. No medical doctor or pharmaceutical drug would be able to accomplish this.
And your proof that homeopathy “cured” your father is…?
He does not have any low grade fever, he gained his weight back, he is very active (before was very tired almost all the time), he does not cough anymore, the CST scan does not show any enlarged nodules. In addition, his immune system is stronger now and he does not get bad colds/flus like before, because he received not only a homeopathic treatment for TB, but also a constitutional homeopathic treatment which strenghtened his immune system. I hope this is enough proof for you that homeopathy “cured” my father. If it is not enough for others, it was and it is enough for him and his family and friends who witnessed all his journey of healing with homeopathic remedies.

He does not have any polyps on the intestines now, none of them came back after the homeopathic treatment. Before the homeoapthic treatment, even though they were surgically removed, they started to come back. After the homeopathic treatment, none came back, the new ones which grew were disolved with homeopathic remedies.

I wrote these comments not because I want to convince you or other people that homeopathy is great, I just pure and simple wanted to share with sincerity our experience with homeopathic treatments. I also saw MEDICAL DOCTORS getting homeopathic help because the allopathic system failed to cure them. I think there are situations in which medical doctors save lives in emergency rooms and I deeply respect those, but also there are people that die every year because of allopathic medication (statistics are made public on the internet). I have never heard anybody dying from homeopathic medication…..Imagine if one day the allopathic community will join homeopathic community, naturopathic community and together will have one common goal! You know - FIRST DO NO HARM! Almost all allopathic medication has side effects! All homeopathic remedies are safe! My mother took years ago (now she takes homeopathic remedies)medication to treat her osteoporosis and in couple of months she started to throw up blood - stomach ulcer, so she had to start taking medication for her ulcer, which caused other side effects….and there is no point to continue, I am sure the message is very clear!

There are a lot of famous people (such as the Royal Family, sportmen, actors, singers, etc.) who get homeopathic treatments, because they know that it is effective and safe.

“The Swiss government has come forward and stated unequivocally that homeopathy is not only effective at treating disease, but cost effective as well. Additionally, homeopathic patients were significantly more pleased with their providers than conventional care patients (53% to 43%).

The Swiss government noted that studies not finding favorably for homeopathy often had design flaws. The investigators often ignored the principles of the practice. That set up a false negative report.

“Two-thirds of the population favored the integration of CAM into the Swiss health system. So, the Swiss Minister of Health approved reimbursement by the government’s health program for five leading natural therapies. These will remain in the system until at least 2018. These include anthroposophic medicine, homeopathy, neural therapy, phytotherapy/herbal medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine.”

“I’ve often said that if our government would do something like this (which they won’t), we could cut disease maintenance costs in this country by 60% within months. Of course, the people would have to participate in getting their bodies more nourished and less toxic.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/swiss-homeopathy_b_1340506.html?ref=healthy-living&utm_source=Copy+of+Mid-March2012Swiss%232&utm_campaign=March+2012+Swiss%232&utm_medium=email.

If you believe only in allopathic treatment, by all means, continue using this system of treating. My family will continue using homeopathy.We all have the right to choose what is best for our body.
Warm wishes!
I was not asking if your father was cured. I was asking how do you know that it was homeopathy that cured him.

Your post is severely flawed I’m afraid. clearly you have not read the scientific literature on the subject which conclusively condemns homeopathy. A simple click on the links in my post will show you that. But it seems you would rather believe the Huffington post (Dana Ullman? Seriously?!?)…

And then you resort to “arguments” from popularity, post hoc ergo propter hoc, and the 100% safe fallacy. Not good…
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