Prove ozone therapy is not harmful, says Subra

MALACCA: The parties involved in providing ozone therapy need to present strong scientific evidence to the Health Ministry if they wished to have it recognised, said its minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.

He said the ministry is of the opinion that ozone therapy is not a recognised form of treatment and users can risk losing their lives in the process.

“If they bring scientific evidence to us and it is accepted by the technical committee and ministry experts, in addition to complying with set scientific procedures, we can accept it.

“But until now, there has been no evidence and (the equipment) are not registered,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Earlier, Subramaniam attended the 8th National-level Health Clinic Advisory Panel Convention in Bandar Hilir.

On Wednesday, Subramaniam said the ministry had banned ozone therapy and directed all business premises, including clinics and beauty salons, that offered the service to cease doing so with immediate effect.

He said an assessment done by the Malaysian Health Technology Assessment Section found no evidence to support any therapeutic benefit of using ozone therapy.

Subramaniam said the ministry would closely monitor the issue by inspecting machines and medicine used in such therapy.

“Substances such as blood thinners (heparin) can only be administered by medical practitioners. I hope the parties involved do not continue offering this treatment illegally.”

On another matter, he said the ministry plans to implement more programmes in preventing non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

“We are going to do a lot of screening to detect the illnesses at an early stage and then provide early treatment for patients to adopt a healthy lifestyle,” he said. – Bernama