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Traditional medicine
傳統醫藥
Treating forgotten killers
治療被遺忘的殺手
Herbal remedies can help ameliorate neglected diseases
草藥可以改善被忽視的疾病
"What do you call traditional medicine that works?" "Medicine." This old joke contains more than a milligram of truth. When, for example, Tu Youyou, a Chinese chemist, began testing the sweet wormwood used in local herbal remedies as a cure for malaria, her isolation of artemisinin saved millions of lives and earned her the Nobel prize for medicine in 2015.
“管用的傳統醫藥叫什么？”“藥。”這個古老的笑話包含了一毫克以上的真理。例如，當中國化學家屠呦呦開始測試當地的草藥中用于治療瘧疾的青蒿素時，她分離出的青蒿素挽救了數百萬人的生命，并為她贏得了2015年的諾貝爾醫學獎。
But not every folk cure is so closely examined—nor is every condition. Over 1.7bn people, most living in the world's poorest countries, are affected by a group of 20 illnesses known as Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDS). These often lead to disability and place a heavy burden on health-care systems badly equipped to deal with them.
但并非每一種民間療法、每一種疾病都能得到如此細致的檢驗。有超過17億人受到20種被稱為“被忽視的熱帶病”(NTDS)的影響，其中大多數生活在世界上最貧窮的國家。這些疾病通常會導致殘疾，同時也給設備簡陋的醫療系統帶來了沉重的負擔。
They are referred to as "neglected" for a reason. A study published in 2009, in International Health, estimated that they received only 0.6% of the money given by rich countries to poor ones for health purposes. Things have not improved since then. A recent report by Policy Cures Research, an international think-tank, estimates the cash available for treating NTDS has been flat for a decade, with less allocated to all of them collectively than either malaria or tuberculosis receives alone.
用“被忽視”形容它們是有原因的。2009年發表在《國際衛生》雜志上的一項研究估計，貧窮國家所獲取的由富裕國家出于衛生目的向其提供的資金只有0.6%。之后情況并未好轉。國際智庫“政策治療研究”最近的一份報告估計，用于治療NTDS的可用資金十年來未曾增減，而全部用于治療NTDS的資金比單獨用于治療瘧疾或肺結核的資金還要少。
This lack of resources has consequences. In Ghana, though estimated rates of lymphatic filariasis (also known as elephantiasis) dropped by 88% between 2010 and 2018, those of schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia) and onchocerciasis (also known as river blindness) rose by 39% and 81% respectively. However, Dorcas Osei-Safo of the University of Ghana has a plan to fight back. Herbal medicine is important in the country. Indeed, its Food and Drugs Authority has already approved several herbal remedies for use against diseases including malaria. She intends to build on this approach.
資源不足會帶來一定的后果。據估計，淋巴絲蟲病(又稱象皮病)的發病率在2010年至2018年間下降了88%，但血吸蟲病(又稱血吸蟲病)和盤尾絲蟲病(又稱河盲癥)的發病率分別上升了39%和81%。不過，來自加納大學的多爾卡絲·奧塞-薩福倒是有一個反攻計劃。草藥在這個國家很重要。其實，美國食品和藥品管理局已經批準了幾種用于治療包括瘧疾在內的疾病的草藥，她打算以這種方法為基礎。
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