Traditional Chinese medicine for combating COVID-19
- PDF / 60,497 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 595.276 x 785.197 pts Page_size
- 101 Downloads / 206 Views
EDITORIAL
Traditional Chinese medicine for combating COVID-19 Kaixian Chen (
✉), Hongzhuan Chen
Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China
© Higher Education Press 2020
COVID-19 is an emerging, rapidly evolving pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Due to its distinctive features in etiology, epidemiology and pathology, this infectious disease poses considerable diagnostic and therapeutic challenge [1]. Patients with COVID-19 mainly receive supportive care and symptom management, since there is no specific antiviral treatment yet for COVID-19. In addition to the principles of early quarantine, early detection, and early treatment [2], the early inclusion of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to the Chinese protocol, i.e., the integration of TCM and Western medicine, also contributed to the rapid containment of COVID-19 in China. TCM not only has a long history against the epidemic diseases but also plays a significant role in combating COVID-19.
Clinical practice After the outbreak of COVID-19, the National Health Commission of China has issued seven editions of diagnosis and treatment protocols. Traditional Chinese medicine treatment was included in the protocol (3rd edition), which was later upgraded and modified to better adapt to the actual conditions. As of March 30, 2020, the TCM therapies were involved in 74 886 confirmed cases, 92% of the total confirmed cases. The early TCM intervention in China, with its advantages of welldocumented clinical practice in preventive, individualized, and multi-target treatment of disease, improved symptoms in patients with COVID-19, sped up the patients’ recovery, prevented mild or moderate cases from developing into severe ones, and helped alleviate the panic and anxiety of the public under the epidemic situation. The model of Received May 28, 2020 Correspondence: Kaixian Chen, [email protected]
makeshift cabin hospitals [3] has been used, first in China and later in many countries, to meet the treatment needs of COVID-19 patients. In the TCM-oriented makeshift hospital led by Zhang Boli, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, no patients developed into severe conditions after receiving comprehensive TCM therapies (Chinese herbal medicine, massage, Guashascraping, point application, and exercise of Taiji/Baduanjin). The “Wuchang pattern” proposed by Tong Xiaolin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and leader of the National TCM Expert Task Force has been proved effective in curbing the spread of the epidemic. This pattern used TCM to prevent and control the epidemic at a community level in the face of major public health emergencies, especially when medical resources are in short supply and no specific medicine is available. Such a pattern bought more time for patients to be treated and reduced mortality and severe illness. According to Huang Luqi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, thre
Data Loading...
