'World Apitherapy Day' to Celebrate Health Benefits of Bee Products

First Annual Event Marks Birth of Scientist Who Studied Bee Venom

(MIAMI, FL, 1/10/2006) – March 30, 2006, will mark the first annual celebration of "World Apitherapy Day," an event designed to enhance international understanding of the therapeutic use and health benefits of bee products. . .

The use of bee products as 'green medicine" is growing worldwide. A recently-concluded program in Cuba, sponsored by the Apitherapy Commission of Apimondia, trained 600 medical personnel to treat conditions such as antibiotic-resistant infections, septicemia and burns. (Apimondia is the International Federation of Beekeepers' Associations. A similar program, co-sponsored by the United Nations, is being planned in Burkina Faso.

'Bee hive products offer tremendous benefits to developing nations in need of low-cost, indigenous and self-sustaining health care systems," said Dr. Moisés Asís, one of the international coordinators of Bees for Life - World Apitherapy Network Inc.

Moisés said March 30 was chosen for the first annual World Apitherapy Day because it is the birth date of Dr. Philipp Terc (formerly Filip Tertsch), the first scientific researcher to investigate the medical uses of 'apitoxin," or bee venom. Terc was born on March 30, 1844, in Praporiste, Bohemia (Czech Republic).

Terc's home town is also near Passau, Germany, the location of the upcoming 4th German Congress and Workshop on Apitherapy (March 24-29, 2006). Participants in that event will visit Praporiste to meet Czech beekeepers and apitherapists.

Dr. Stefan Stangaciu, a specialist in family medicine and president of the German Apitherapy Society, is the main presenter at the Apitherapy conference in Passau. Stangaciu has presented scientific papers on Apitherapy at more than 100 conferences, seminars and workshops in 34 countries.

Products promoting World Apitherapy Day are available at: www.cafepress.com/apitherapy (All proceeds will go to the World Apitherapy Network.) . . .

CONTACT: Dr. Moisés Asís, 305-349-1283, E-Mail: moisesasis@comcast.net; Dr. Stefan Stangaciu, E-Mail: drstangaciu@apitherapy.com