TCM against COVID-19: Traditional Chinese medicine used to treat coronavirus patients

The World Congress of Chinese Medicine has just begun in Changchun, in northeastern China's Jilin Province. This event focuses on the role that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can play in 21st Century healthcare. That includes treating coronavirus patients. 

It may have a history spanning thousands of years, but that's not stopped experts praising the role Traditional Chinese Medicine has played in the fight against COVID-19.

At the World Congress of Chinese Medicine taking place in Changchun, people from around the world are learning about how TCM is being applied to treat the virus.

"What we did in Wuhan was to focus on keeping up the patients' immune system by taking a TCM herbal formula, and the results showed that the risk of getting seriously ill was significantly reduced," said Zhang Boli, a member of Chinese Academy of Engineering.

For the first time, the World Health Organization added TCM therapies to its global diagnostic compendium. Though many of the remedies in TCM have been used for thousands of years, some argue there's no scientific evidence to support TCM's benefits in treating the coronavirus.

Prof. Diarra Boubacar, a foreign expert in TCM, said:  "The way TCM works to treat the COVID-19 is different from the way western people are thinking. In Chinese medicine we don't try to kill the virus, we are focusing on the human itself. More than 75,000 patients have been treated by TCM, we've seen more than 92 percent of clinical efficiency."

With around 200 people infected since the Delta variant was first reported in Nanjing on July 20, experts at the summit also discussed whether the vaccines are working against the Delta variant, as well as the clinical efficiency of TCM remedies.

 "Based on our experience in Guangdong and Yunnan, combined treatment using western and TCM has shown promising results in face of the Delta variant. I think the Nanjing outbreak can be brought down under control soon. In terms of the effectiveness of vaccines, data shows that patients who were vaccinated rarely become seriously ill. So the next step is to have more teenagers vaccinated to achieve herd immunity," added ZHANG BOLI.  

Guan Yang, from Changchun, Jilin province, said that although self-quarantines and the roll-out of vaccines have effectively slowed down the COVID-19 infection rate, therapeutic strategies are still being discovered – like Traditional Chinese Medicine which has seen increasing demand across the world throughout the pandemic.