A blend of traditional and western medicine

 

Sri Lanka is a market leader in the Asian region for medical tourism. It is well renowned for the quality of its medical services as well as being a top holiday destination. Tourists from all around the world come to Sri Lanka each year to take advantage of the beauty of the country & also for the skill, talent & experience of the traditional ‘Ayurveda’ medical services as well as the western medical services. Equally important is the lower cost of world class treatment at a fraction of what it costs in the developed countries. In addition, there is no waiting period for any of the major surgical interventional procedures in the hospitals in Sri Lanka. 

Ayurveda represents a system of healing that has been perfected over more than five thousand years. It is famed as South Asia’s ancient health care system based on herbs and diet. Ayurveda sees health and disease in holistic terms. It takes into account the relationship between energy and matter. This system of healing believes in treatment of not just the part affected by disease but the individual as a whole. It emphasises on the harmony of mind, body and spirit to cure diseases. Sri Lankans have made use of the “user-friendly and traditional medicine – Ayurveda” which over 70% of the island’s population depend on because of its reliance on natural plants, herbs and oils.

Sri Lanka has its own indigenous scheme of traditional medicine which is called "Hela wedakama" (apart from Ayurveda). This system has been practised for many centuries in the island nation. The Sri Lankan "Hela wedakama" is a mixture of the Sinhala traditional medicine, Ayurveda and Siddha systems of India, Unani medicine of Greece through the Arabs, and most importantly, the Desheeya Chikitsa, which is the indigenous medicine of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is one of the top countries who managed to sucsessfully controll the ongoing global pandemic COVID19, also known as coronavirus. In parallel, alongside western medicine, Ayurvedic medicine have managed to save many lifes. In comparison the death rate due to the pandamic is at a very low number of 0.41% out of 2953 patients and the recovery rate is high at 94.99% as of 24th August 2020.