TRADITIONAL TREATMENT
▶ TCM remedies cure and improve more COVID-19 patients with national promotion
China’s efforts to mobilize traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners to find a cure for COVID-19 have yielded optimistic results in the fight against the virus which originated from Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province. TCM treatment has helped stabilize conditions, despite doubt by some skeptics.
Clinical treatment and recovery using TCM was included in the latest version of the COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment scheme released by the National Health Commission on Wednesday.
The central government group that guides the epidemic control work required greater efforts of treatment integrating TCM and Western medicine on February 13.
To echo the call, provincial regions such as East China’s Zhejiang and Shandong, South China’s Guangdong and Northwest China’s Gansu and Qinghai on Wednesday announced further practice of TCM in the COVID-19 treatment.
TCM doctors and experts said that a positive combination of TCM with Western medicine has proven the ability to shorten the treatment process. Amid the COVID-19 epidemic, experts are calling for deepened understanding of TCM.
Renowned Chinese respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan said on a Tuesday press conference in Guangdong that he values the positive effectiveness of TCM in treating patients in their early and middle stages, including killing the virus, reducing opportunities of the virus entering bodies and decreasing the occurrences of Cytokine storm, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported on Wednesday.
Widely practiced
“Western medicine intervenes after sorting out a virus’ characteristic maps and pathogenesis, while TCM interprets a pandemic from the principle of how human beings adapt to the alternation of seasons and natural change.” Cao Hongxin
former head of science and technology at the State Administration of TCM
The 5th Pulmonary Department was temporarily formed at the TCM Hospital of Hubei in the wake of the epidemic. From the very beginning, the department combined Chinese and Western medicines to save lives.
“TCM and Western medicine are equally important in treating COVID-19. The combination could shorten the treatment process and quickly ease the symptoms,” Feng Yi, a chief doctor on Pulmonary Medicine at the TCM Hospital of Hubei, told the Global Times.
The department received patients with mild or severe symptoms, and has kept them in stable conditions. A total of 26 patients from the department have been discharged and 36 are still under treatment.
Feng said apart from respiratory tract, TCM works well on dealing with symptoms such as diarrhea or constipation. It can also hinder the illness developing to a critical stage.
TCM has been employed in the treatment of more than 85.2 percent of the COVID-19 confirmed cases across the country as of Monday, Jiang Jian, an official with the National Administration of TCM, said on Monday. Outside Hubei, 87 percent of patients have been cured or had their conditions improved thanks to TCM.
As of Monday, more than 3,100 medical personnel from more than 630 Chinese medicine hospitals across the country have been sent to aid Hubei Province in the fight against the epidemic, said Jiang.
Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, also reiterated the importance of the combination of TCM and Western medicine on Wednesday during his visit to Leishenshan Hospital, the second specialized emergency hospital built in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.
Doctor Wen Minyong is now in charge of an inpatient area with 70 beds at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese & Western Medicines, which treats patients in severe and critical conditions.
“The current therapies of TCM have seen a good result as most patients have been relieved from pain, cough, expectoration, and shortness of breath, and had better appetites,” Wen, the captain of a supporting medical team the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of
Chinese Medicine dispatched to Wuhan, told the Global Times.
Wang Zhen, chief doctor at the respiratory department of the Chiense Medicine Hospital of Zhejiang Province, told the Global Times that 95.83 percent of COVID-19 patients in Zhejiang have taken TCM treatment.
“Whether for COVID-19 pneumonia, SARS, H1N1 or bird flu, traditional Chinese medicine has showed pretty good effectiveness in the treatment,” he noted.
The Jiangxia makeshift hospital in Wuhan has been taken over by the national TCM team. The team uses methods such as acupuncture, massage and tai chi to treat patients and makes sure each patient has a TCM decoction specifically prescribed according to their symptoms.
Tradition of healing
Over thousands of years, TCM has accumulated rich experience in treating epidemics, and it has been developed through curing epidemics, Liu Jinmin, director at the Dongfang Hospital of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, told the Global Times.
The TCM treatment plans recommended by the National Health Commission include multiple herbal prescriptions targeting fever, heavy coughing, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, shortness of breath, and tiredness, according to the Xinhua News Age
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