TCM treatment effective on over 90% of COVID-19 patients on China's mainland: Official

Clinical observation showed that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has proven to be effective in the treatment of over 90 percent of all confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland, said a TCM official on Monday.

A press conference is held on the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of COVID-19 cases in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province, March 23, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

A total of 74,187 COVID-19 patients, or 91.5 percent of the total confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland, have received TCM treatment, said Yu Yanhong, Party chief of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, at a press conference in Wuhan, capital of the hardest-hit province of Hubei.

In Hubei, TCM treatment has been given to 90.6 percent of COVID-19 patients.

All TCM prescriptions have effectively relieved symptoms, slowed the progression of the disease, improved the cure rate and reduced mortality and boosted the recovery of patients, said Yu.

Over 4,900 medics from TCM hospitals and institutions across China have been sent to aid the epidemic fight in Hubei, accounting for about 13 percent of all medics dispatched to the province.

"The scale and strength of the TCM aid team are unprecedented," said Yu.

Zhang Boli, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at the press conference that TCM treatment has significantly lowered the proportion of patients whose conditions turned from mild to severe.

"None of the 564 patients at the TCM-oriented temporary hospital in Wuhan saw their health condition deteriorating into severe," said Zhang. "We have therefore applied TCM treatment to over 10,000 patients in other makeshift hospitals, and the rate of patients developing into severe conditions were substantially reduced," said Zhang.

XuanFeiBaiDu Granule can increase the lymphocyte recovery rate by 17 percent and the clinical cure rate by 22 percent in the controlled observation, according to Huang Luqi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Liu Qingquan, head of the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that two TCM drugs -- Jinhua Qinggan Granule and Lianhua Qingwen Capsule/Granule have proven to be effective in the treatment of mild COVID-19 cases, while Xuebijing Injection can help treat inflammation and coagulation dysfunction.

Yu added that China has worked out a unique "Chinese plan" to combine traditional Chinese medicine with western medicine, and several effective TCM drugs and prescriptions have been discovered to treat the disease.

"The epidemic knows no borders, and the virus is the common enemy of mankind. China is willing to share its experiences and effective treatment methods with the world," said Yu.