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n Indonesia, many alternative medicines are not fully regulated and monitored. This allows for uncertainty regarding the efficacy and safety of such products. Many alternative medicines are not supported by evidence-based research.

Furthermore, manufacturers of alternative medicines exaggerate their healing properties by making promotional advertisements filled only with comments from satisfied customers rather than proper research data.

Indonesians have seen plenty of examples within the past few months, with television channels broadcasting advertisements about traditional Chinese medicine.

In one of the advertisements, an alternative clinic states that their traditional medicine can cure diabetes. Since when could diabetes be cured?

Diabetes is a degenerative disease that cannot be cured. It can only be controlled within normal levels with lifestyle changes and medication. So, it does not make sense when this traditional Chinese medicine clinic states that diabetes can be cured by only three visits to the clinic.

This problem is not only limited to Indonesia. Several international organizations have already made statements about traditional medicine.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in an attempt to promote the highest attainable health standards, stated that each country had an obligation to stop traditional preventive care, healing practices and medicines, from marketing unsafe drugs and from applying coercive medical treatments.

Believing it to be cheaper than modern medicine is one of the reasons people go for traditional and alternative medicine. Many people, especially the impoverished, think that alternative medicine is inexpensive.

That point of view, however, is completely wrong. Many traditional Chinese medical fees are more expensive than doctors’ fees. People pay millions of rupiah but are not cured of their ailments. Furthermore, they risk their lives by consuming unsafe medicines.

In terms of promotion, many government regulations have been abandoned by traditional medicine manufacturers.

According to Health Minister Regulation No. 1787/2010 on Health Care Advertising and Publicity, testimonials from patients are prohibited in advertisements.

 In reality, though, many traditional medicines used patients’ testimonials for promotional enhancement. Moreover, the Consumer Protection Law states that people have the right to be given accurate information about a product.

But, we can see that some advertisements for traditional medicine are less than honest. If a traditional clinic is proved to be dishonest, its owner will be fined around Rp 2 billion (US$210,416) or sentenced to up to five years in jail.

World Health Organization (WHO) data from 2005 stated that 80 percent of the world’s population still used traditional medicines.

The 2010 Indonesia National Economic Social Survey similarly revealed that the number of Indonesians who preferred alternative medicine had increased rapidly. Many Indonesians believe in the efficacy of their traditional herbal medicine or jamu. From common colds to impotency, people will go to jamu stalls to drink herbal medicine.

Some of the traditional herbal medicine producers have improved their production systems by including evidence-based research on their products.

They have also set up modern and hygienic facilities to produce their herbal medicines. Although we often hear and read news about fake herbal medicines that contain hazardous chemicals, the big herbal medicine companies tend to comply with safety regulations.

In 2009, the WHO recommended that countries add traditional medicine into their respective national health systems.

The Indonesian government also encourages public hospitals to incorporate alternative and traditional medicines, such as acupuncture and jamu, into their health care services. State universities have also collaborated with herbal medicine producers on some basic efficacy research about jamu.

Earlier in 2008, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared jamu the brand of Indonesian herbal medicine.

With the government committed to only regulating evidence-based herbal medicines, manufacturers should accept if the efficacy of their products does not live up to their promotion.

Many scientists believe that traditional medicine works only as a placebo on the human body, which means it does not actually heal the body. It merely offers a degree of comfort to those who consume it.

While access to health care is a basic human right, so it is the government’s responsibility to supervise the practice of traditional and alternative medicine.

The government, especially the Health Ministry and the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency should protect society from the perilous effects of traditional treatments that are toxic to humans through strict regulations and monitoring. If traditional medicine manufacturers cannot prove that their products are safe, the government should close their factories.

The government should also promote the wider distribution of professional health workers. With more health workers spread equally throughout the country, people can go to the right place and gain a better understanding of a particular disease and the safe medicine to treat it.

The government should further ensure that medical treatment in public hospitals is free for those on low incomes, so that they are not encouraged to seek out unproven traditional medicines.

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) should rebuke television stations that broadcast traditional medicine advertisements that could mislead consumers. Health organizations, such as the Indonesian Medical Association (IMA) should promote evidence-based medicine to society, so that people will only trust medicine that has been proven to work through research.

They can also organize talk shows or advertising campaigns on television, radio, in print media and on social media sites about the danger of untested medicines.

Finally, we want safe drugs — including traditional and alternative medicines — for all. This can happen if traditional medicines are subjected to scientific research and government monitoring and regulation.

The writer, a medical doctor, lives in Jakarta.