NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT REPORT ROMANIA

May 2005,
Berlin, Germany

Dr. Atena Ioana ANTONESCU

Str. 11 Iunie 30A, sector 4, Bucuresti, Romania
Tel/Fax +40 21 336 7737 ;+ 40 21 456 6481 ;
Mobile + 40 742 111 888 ; +40 723 695 133 ;
E-mail : atena_ioana@yahoo.com

SUMARY:

Romania is one of the few countries in which the practice of homeopathy is legal and clearly regulated since 1981: only medical doctors can lawfully practice homeopathy after completing the 3 year course and after passing the full licence examination. Over 2500 physicians have since completed the course.

The Pharmacy Museum in Sibiu holds the second largest collection of homeopathic remedies (only a reduced number is exhibited), also in the Tower Museum of Sighisoara the homeopatic remedy set exhibited stand proof that homeopathy has been known and practiced in Romania since Hahnemann’s time.

Kent-Plus Repertory, a first in Romanian, has been the biggest publishing event in homeopathy. Realized by Dr. Ioan Teleianu, this monumental work is a major advance in the development of homeopathy.

The beautifully printed, hardcover revised Romanian edition of the 6th Organon was one of the events that marked the Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of Hahnemann, held in Sibiu (Hermanstadt).

Number of LMHI members: 21

ORGANIZATIONS:

Societatea Romana de Homeopatie (founded 1947),
C/O Fundatia “Din Iubire”, str. Primaverii 82, Bucuresti, Romania
President Dr. Ioan Teleianu, e-mail: teleianu@fx.ro

National Institute of Acupuncture and Homeopathy
(Former Center of Acupuncture and Homeopathy, founded 1981) of the Ministry of Health
Str. Visarion, Nr. 6-8, Bucuresti
Director: Dr. Florin Bratila

Liga pentru homeopatia clasica (founded 2004)
President Dr. Catalin Sararu

Fundatia Romana Prohomeopatia
Str. Aleea Campul Mosilor nr 1; tel +401 2422491
President Dr. Ioan Teleianu, e-mail: teleianu@fx.ro

Fundatia Similimum - Bucuresti
Bd. Decebal nr. 3, bl. S12B, sc. A, apt. 8, sector 3, tel +4013224625 simhmp@dial.kappa.ro
President Dr. Constantin Sararu

Fundatia Similia - Constanta
Str. Cismelei nr 11, Constanta, tel 40 41 648156
President Dr. Sorina Soescu

Asociatia Arsmedica
Str. Aurel Vlaicu, Nr. 150, 72 114, Bucuresti, Romania
Tel/fax +40 21 212 46 55
President Dr. Carmen Maria Sturza

Academia Internationala de Homeopatie (George Vithoulkas) - Sectiunea Romana-Iasi
President Dr. Silvia Vasile

EDUCATION:

In Romania only medical doctors have the legal right to practice homeopathy.

There is only one official training program recognized by the Ministry of Health that gives the right to practice homeopathy in Romania.

Starting with 2003 the official training is designed in two manners: 10 week-ends/year, duration two years or three modules of three weeks, duration three years. The program and the teacher team are the same for both courses and are defined by the Romanian Society of Homeopathy; the Ministry of Health Center for Postgraduate Training issues the Diplomas that certify the right to practice homeopathy in Romania.

Both programs include practical training with experienced homeopathic medical doctors and groupmeetings.

The curriculum of the homeopathic training is in accord with the Education Program as elaborated by the European Commitee for Homeopathy.

There are also courses organized by the Boiron homeopathic laboratories that have gained official recognition from the Ministry of Health, although the course is not in accord with the educational guidelines established by the Romanian Homeopathic Society. As they are quite popular among pharmacists, they tend to stimulate the use of homeopathic remedies in an un-homeopathic way. Also, the Vithoulkas video-course is now recognized, and awarded with hours of CMT.

JOURNALS/MAGAZINES:

Revista Romana de Homeopatie, official publication of the Romanian Homoeopathic Society

The Newsletter - Romanian Homeopathic Society

Aude sapere - electronic magazine of homeopathy, edited and distributed free of charge by Dr. Marius Radu, Bucuresti ramarius@hotmail.com

WEB SITES

There are 4 official web sites run by the Romanian Homeopathic Society, providing various informations for patients, homeopaths and trainees.

www.homeopatia.ro (provides links to all other Romanian web pages)

HOMOEOPATHIC LIBRARIES:

The Homeopathic Section of the University of Pharmacy and Medicine Library, Bucharest

Homeopathic Library in Sibiu, the host-town of the 56th LMHI Congress, 2001

Homeopathic section (founded 1995 by LMHI-Romania and Romanian Homeopathic Society) of the Center of Medical Documentation, Str. Pitar Mos, Bucuresti

There is one bookshop in the center of Bucharest that provides a varied offer of homeopathic books published by Jain Publishers of India.

HOMOEPATHIC LABORATORIES/MANUFACTURERS:

PLANTEXTRACT
Radaia, Jud Cluj

HOMEOPATAFARM
Str. Scoala Herastrau, 32, Bucuresti

NATURALIA
Com. Voluntari, Jud. Ilfov

CHRISTIANA MEDICA
Str. Theodar Sperantia, 104, Bucuresti

History of Homeopathy in Romania

(adapted after “Moments in the development of Romanian homeopathy”, pharm. Cezarina Tzuchel)

• At the end of the year 1847 there were 2 homeopaths in Bucharest and one in Craiova (as recorded in the traveling journal of the French balneologist Joseph Caillet). In Transilvania, during the same time period, dr. Joseph Szabo was opposing, in the Parliament, the proposal to found a Chair of Homeopathy at the Medical Faculty in Cluj, indicating the existence of homeopathic doctors.

• In 1863, The High Order of Physicians of Romania decides to forbid homeopathic treatments in public hospitals, while admitting it in private practice. Later, dr. Felix Iacob communicates the point of view of the medical authorities that admit that homeopathy cannot be forbidden, as it is harmless and fashionable.

• Between the two World Wars, the pharmacies that sold homeopathic remedies alongside with allopathic drugs were : “La Vulturul Negru”, Sibiu, and in Bucharest “La Sfinti”, “Thais” and “La Ursu”.

• The communist regime interdicts the practice of homeopathy between 1944 and 1964, during which years it survives discreetly.

• In 1968, dr. Tiberiu Ionescu, through a decision of the Ministry of Health, establishes a Methodologic Homeopathic Consultory, inside the Diham Policlinic premises.

In the same year, pharm. Victor Iacobi starts to establish a homeopathic pharmacy and orders the first 400 mother tinctures and triturations from the Schwabe Laboratories in Germany. In 1970, the Board of the Pharmaceutical Office of Bucharest names Cezarina Tzuchel as pharmacist, to be trained by pharm. Victor Iacobi in preparing homeopathic remedies. In this way is founded the Homeopathic Section of the Farmacy no.7, Calea Victoriei no. 139. The first medical doctors to collaborate with this Section were : Dr. Tiberiu Ionescu, Dr. Ramiro Tomescu, Dr. Dorin Gutu, Dr. Gheorghe Bungetzianu (now President of Honor of the Romanian Homeopathic Society), Dr. Corneliu Aurelian Blajeni .

• 1980 – the Director of the Center for Post-Graduated Medical Training (Centrul de Perfectzionare a Cadrelor Medicale Superioare) , Dr. Ioan Teleianu , organizes the first Introductory Course in Homeopathy, that has continued since yearly, with more and more participants. The first body of lecturers : dr. Gheorghe Bungetzianu, dr. Victor Sahleanu, dr. Pavel Chirila, dr. C.A. Blajeni, dr. I. Nicea, dr. Maria Polihroniade, dr. P. Parvulescu and pharm. Cezarina Tzuchel.

• 26 November 1981 takes place the first Homeopathic Simposium, in Bucharest, followed by yearly Simposiums : ’82 “Experimental and Clinical Results in Homeopathy”, ’83 “National Flora in Homeopathy”, ’84 “Homeopathy in Paediatrics”, ’85 “Sounds, Scents and Homeopathy”, ’87 “Sleep disturbances in homeopathic semiotics and therapeutics. Scientific research in homeopathy” etc

• 1989 , Sibiu, First National Conference with international participation : “Homeopathy and professional diseases”

• Romanian books on homeopathy are published : “Homeopathy : theory and practice”, dr. T. Caba, 1979; “Coursebook on Homeopathy” dr. Gh. Bungetzianu and dr. P. Chirila, 1984 etc

• In the ‘80’s, The Drug (with the meaning of medicinal substances) Commision from the Institute of State Control of Drugs and Pharmaceutical Research, presided by Prof. Dr. D. Dobrescu introduced a list of homeopathic remedies in the “Nomenclatorul de medicamente” (Pharmacopeea) of the Ministry of Health.

• Pharmacies in Bucharest, Sibiu, Brasov, Constanta, Cluj, Timisoara, Iasi, Oradea, Ploiesti, Buzau, Deva, Focsani, Galati, Targoviste have a homeopathic section led by those that followed the homeopathic training.

• The Faculty of Pharmacy of Bucharest has the merit of introducing, through Prof. Dr. D. Dobrescu, in the student curricula courses of homeopathy pharmacy, as well as postgraduate studies of Clinical Pharmacology.

• After the ‘90s, there are several other associations that take birth, offering training for medical homeopathic doctors, publications and offering homeopathic treatment for the poor.

Quote from Pharm Cezarina Tuchel “ Taking everything in account, we can state that Romanian homeopathy, as it is in these days, was born out of love, with much pain and suffering, and it’s development has been one of heroic professional efforts. There is no exaggeration in my statement. Those of us that are here today can well remember the efforts, the sacrifices, the perseverance in copying a book, or when you came in half-frozen trains just to be together for a few hours, at the monthly meetings. We also remember how we were sitting there, with the hats and gloves on, listening to the lectures delivered in the crisp and cold winter air, lectures that had been prepared at home, regardless of the inhuman temperatures to be withstood. All this can not be and must not be forgotten, as this was the way Romanian homeopathy followed its way through the personal experience of one and each of us, each of it unique through its stubbornness and its vicissitudes . Nothing lasting can be built without mind and also without soul and without always keeping in mind those that were before us, laying the foundations”.

Archives research by dr. N.Marcu ⁽¹⁾ point out that homeopathy became known in our country, on the territory of the Romanian Principates, after 1830, so quite early, simultaneous with its spreading in other European states. It seems, however, that traditional folk medicine used many medicinal plants, seemingly in the homeopathic spirit, many centuries before Hahnemann. In view of this, M.Neagu ⁽²⁾ declares that "in homeopathy there exists an empirical tradition that is lost in the fog of ages”. This statement bases itself upon the numerous plants utilized in helbal folk medicine by Romanian peasants and used on similar indications in homeopathy. So, he concludes, homeopathy has a basis in folk medicine, as well as allopathic medicine.

The autor, in his article "Homeopathic fitoterapy in Romanian ethnoiatria", goes on to show that in folk medicine the quantity of active substance used, that determines both the intensity and quality of response, is of great importance, principle that can be found in the theory of dilutions of Hahnemann. But, excepting the small quantities of substances used and maybe the principle of similarity, no other aspects of modern homeopathy can be traced in ethnoiatry, homeopathy being much more complex and the remedies having more precise and extended indications as compared to those of herbs in folk medicine.

The first doctors that practiced homeopathy following the hahnemanian doctrine as it had been elaborated by Hahnemann were at least 3 (documented): Friederich Kraft during 1836-1856, Eduard Spech during 1846-1865 and Alois Jenicek during 1859-1870. Pharmacist Johan Martin Honigberger (1795-1869) was a pupil of Hahnemannduring 1836-1837 and practiced both allopathic and homeopathic medicine in Romania as well as in Bulgaria, Turkey, India and Pakistan.

Friederich Kraft (1811-1854)magister in surgery, licensed in 1837 in Wien. He practised surgery in Brasov, being the first to use ether for narcosis in 1847. He practiced homeopathy since 1938, however there are no documents regarding the treatments prescribed, the remedies he used and the results obtained.

Eduard Spech (1816-1871) also obtained the title of doctor in medicine in Wien, 1846. He wrote the first Romanian homeopathic book, “Self-help in urgent cases of disease after the homeopathic system”. He brought from Wien an impressive collection of homeopathic remedies that was offered for sale to the Bucharest pharmacist Rissdorfer. Probably the pharmacist sold remedies without prescription, which lead to an inquiry ordered by the Chief of Medical Services, dr. Carol Davila. The remedies were confiscated and dr. Spech found himself in the temporary impossibility of continuing treatment with his patients. He resumed practice afterwards, in private, in 1864 was still working in Bucharest. There is no documentation as to when he left the country, death finding him in Australia in 1871.

Eduard Iuliu Rissdorfer was the first homeopathic pharmacist to be working in Bucharest. Well trained and recognized as an authority in the pharmacology field, he was a member of the Medicine Commission of the Superior Sanitary Council between 1865-1881 and also the President of the Pharmaceutical College for a long period of time.

Alois Jenicek, magister in surgery and doctor in medicine was another homeopathic prescriber in the XIX century. Appreciated for his activity he was elected in 1856, as titular member of the Homeopathic Medical Association of Austria.

In 1863 the Superior Medical Council, regulating medical practice, forbade the practice of homeopathy in public institutions, admitting it only in private practice. Also, it forbade doctors to administer remedies directly to patients, and also pharmacists to sell remedies without a prescription. Homeopathy in Romania in the XIX century had some decided opponents as I.Seleminski and P.Vasici-Ungureanu, while C.Davila, N.Turnescu, Al.Marcovici, I.Felix showed disbelief in the therapeutic effect of infinitesimal doses. In Transylvania, dr. J.Sabo was opposing in Parliament the proposal for a Chair of Homeopathy at the Faculty of Medicine in Cluj. Later however, dr. F.Iacob communicated the point of view of medical authorities that recogniyed homeopathy could not be forbidden as it is fashionable and harmless³⁾.

Starting with the interbelic period, other personalities came in the light and contributed to the development of homeopathy in Romania.

Constantin Barbulescu (1898-1973) obtained the title of doctor in medicine and surgery at Iasi in 1927. He specialiyed abroad and encountered homeopathy in 1935. He studied in Paris under the supervision of Leoan Vanier and on return he strated practicing homeopathy in Bucharest, obtaining the prestige of a competent and devoted healer of the suffering. In 1946 he published a nomenclator of Homeopathic Materia Medica (republished in 2001, on the occasion of the 59^th LMHI Congress held in Sibiu, Romania) and a monograph of Sulphur, and in 1956 a small work entitled “What we need to know about homeopathy”, which he gave free of charge to his patients. He was active since its founding in the Romanian Homeopathyc Society in 1947. In 1969 he conceived a work containing proposals for the further development of homeopathy in Romania which he sent to the Ministry of Health. He collaborated with many doctors interested in learning homeopathy, leaving behind a legacy of homeopathic doctors that are working in these present days.

Petre Georgescu (1889-1974), distinguished surgeon of the Bucharest School, was also an adept of homeopathy and tried to contribute to its development, considering that in order to achive the high goal of aleviating human suffering, both clasical and alternative methods of healing should be made use of. He became aquainted with the homeopathic doctrine as an intern and corresponded on this subject with colleagues from France an dGermany. He remained fainthfull to homeopathy all his life, practicing it alongside surgery. During the interbelic period, he met regularly with other colleagues, discussing on speciality themes. In 1937 he shows them an article in an British Journal in which homeopathy alluded to. The most interested in this subject proved to be N.Nicolicescu and C.Fulga.

Nicolae Nicolicescu (1900-1958) worked as intern in the urology clinic of Prof. Hortolomei of the Coltea Hospital. As he became passionate about homeopatie, he started to practice, and obtained very good results. In 1942, after an intense 5 year time of study, he stopped practicing allopathic medicine. During 1945-1948 dr. Nicolicescu intended to found a homeopathic school and contacted several younger collegues., the most interested was Gh.Bungetzianu, and he continued to practice homeopathy until 2006, when at the age of 90 he passed away.

N.Nicolicescu was a good friend, since highschool, of Costin Fulga who obtained the title of doctor in medicine in 1924. His tsolid knowledge in the fields of internal medicine, bacteriology, infectious diseases, morphology and dermatology was seconded by his passion for music, painting and poetry. He became interested in homeopathy, which he practiced in the hospital and his consulting rooms.

Pharmacist Victor Iacobi is hailed as the founder of modern homeopathic Romanian pharmacolgy. He graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy of Bucharest and then worked in the pharmacy that he inherited from his father. At the suggestion of a relative, he opened an homeopathic section, receiving help in documentation and mother tinctures. Oficialy, the activity ceased in 1948, but Iacobi continued to work for his clients. The new homeopathic pharmacy was started in Farmacia nr.7, Calea Victoriei, as an experimental section, in 1970, in collaboration with Cezarina Tuchel. In the following years Iacobi continued to collaborate, although his contract had expired, bringing his experience to help develop the homeopathic section till his death in 1974.

Dr. Tiberiu Ionescu succeded in establishing, in 1968, by a decision of the Ministry of Health, an Methodological Homeopathic Clinic within the Diham Policlinic.

Dr. Ioan Bratu (1910-1963) was a remarkable personality of the medical romanian school, promoter of a complex medicine. He followed the courses of the Cluj Faculty of Medicine, then became assistant proesor in the urology clinic of Prof. Iacobovici, whom he then followed to Bucharest. During the II World war he was severely hurt and was bedridden for over an year. He found his refuge in study, and came in contact with a different kind of medical literature : acupuncture and homeopathy. Bratu is mostly known as one of the promoters of acupuncture in Romania, but he also practiced homeopathy. He belived that the main role of a doctor is to help the suffering, and as such he acted, from case to case, either as homeopath, or acupuncturist, or allopath. He had to endure the disdainful treatment of some colleagues that only accepted “academic medicine”, considering acupuncture and homeopathy as simple “heterodox” concepts that did not deserve to be studied. It was for this reason that he seemed, at first look, to be a closed and grumpy man. In contact with his patients, he showed great warmth and was straightforward that greatly influenced those that came into contact. He led a sustained campaign for the official recognition of other medical methods, different from allopathic medicine. He contributed at the founding of the Study Group of Acupuncture of USSM (Union of the Medical Science Societies) and Homeopathy. Unfortunatly, a lung cancer stped him at the age of 53 years.

In 1980 Ministry of Health reglemented the activity of training in the field of homeopathy. This started to take place under the supervision of Dr. Ioan Teleianu, at the Center of Postgraduate Medical Studies, organized as 3 cicles over 3 years of study, with a final examination. The first teachers weret Gh.Bungetzianu, V.Sahleanu, P.Chirila, C.A.Blajeni, I.Nicea, Maria Polihroniade, P.Parvulescu si Cezarina Tuchel. In november 1981 takes place the first national homeopathic simpozium, tradition that will be continued every year, now taking place as the National Homeopathic.

Nowadays the education of medical doctors in the field of homeopathy is supervised by the Romanian Homeopathic Society (Societatea Romana de Homeopatie) president dr. I.Teleianu.

⁽¹⁾ Marcu N. "Inceputurile homeopatiei in Romania" in "Viata Medicala", vol. XXXII, nr.4, 1985.
⁽²⁾ Neagu M. "Fitoterapia homeopatica in etnoiatria romaneasca" in "Apararea sanatatii ieri si azi", edit. Medicala, Bucuresti, 1984.
⁽³⁾ Cezarina Tuchel "Momente din drumul homeopatiei romanesti" la Conferinta nationala de homeopatie, oct. 1991, Bucuresti.

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