WHO: Chinese medicine can effectively treat the Covid-19
On March 31st, the WHO official website released the report “World Health Organization Expert Evaluation Meeting on the Treatment of New Coronary Pneumonia with Traditional Chinese Medicine”. 21 international experts from 6 WHO regions participated in the assessment meeting. The meeting report pointed out that traditional Chinese medicine can effectively treat new coronary pneumonia, reduce the conversion of mild and common cases to severe, shorten the virus clearance time, and improve the prognosis of mild and common patients. The report also encourages member states to consider the integrative medicine model (integrated Chinese and Western medicine) developed and applied in China. To effectively manage the current outbreak and prepare for possible future pandemics. At the same time, at the evaluation meeting, Wenming Yu, director of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, welcomed WHO’s continued support for traditional medicine and expressed China’s willingness to assist other WHO member states to strengthen the role of traditional medicine in their health systems.
21 international experts jointly evaluate the report on traditional Chinese medicine
On January 17th, following a high-level policy dialogue between the WHO Director-General and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of China in Geneva, WHO decided to convene an expert meeting to assess the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of COVID-19.
On January 18th, WHO Director-General Tedros tweeted: “I met with Huang Luqi, Vice Commissioner of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and President of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, to discuss the role of Traditional Chinese Medicine in improving people’s health.”
From February 28th to March 2nd, the expert evaluation meeting on traditional Chinese medicine treatment of new coronary pneumonia was held. The 21 international experts participating in the meeting were from 6 WHO regions, including 5 panelists from the WHO Expert Advisory Panel, 8 representatives from WHO Collaborating Centres, and 3 from WHO International Regulatory Cooperation for Herbal Medicines Member, Academician of Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Prof. Harry Fong from the School of Pharmacy, the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, and Prof. Elaine Elisabetsky, from the Federal University of Rio Grande, do Sul, Brazil; were elected as the co-chairs of the meeting. Huang Luqi, president of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, served as the conference consultant.
At the opening ceremony of the meeting, Wenming Yu, director of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, welcomed WHO’s continued support for traditional medicine.
“After the outbreak, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine immediately dispatched Chinese medicine experts to Wuhan to conduct investigations and diagnosis. They summarized and screened out ‘three medicines and three prescriptions’ for the new coronary pneumonia. These treatment methods have been continuously optimized to treat new mutants. We will continue to optimize TCM diagnosis and treatment plans, screen formulas, and evaluate the efficacy. And then we analyze effective formulas to scientifically explain the mechanism of efficacy,” Wenming Yu said.
The meeting evaluated three reports on TCM and Covid-19 provided by the Chinese National Expert Group, focused on clinical application, research, and evidence-based evaluation. They are “Clinical use of traditional Chinese medicine in fighting against COVID-19 in China”; “Scientific research on prevention and treatment of COVID-19 with traditional Chinese medicine”; “Methodology applied in the selection of the randomized controlled trials”.
International expert consensus: Traditional Chinese medicine is safe and effective in the treatment of new crown
At the evaluation meeting, Chinese experts demonstrated the clinical research basis of traditional Chinese medicine reports. As of March 2022, the China Clinical Trials Registry (the first-level registration agency of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registration Platform) has registered 859 Chinese COVID-19 clinical studies, of which 213 are related to traditional Chinese medicine.
Of the studies that considered mild cases, 106 studies investigated the effect of TCM on fever, 103 studies assessed the effect of TCM on cough, and 94 studies considered TCM and fatigue. There is also an example of a multicenter randomized controlled trial that enrolled 284 patients in 23 hospitals in 9 provinces in China, who were treated with traditional Chinese medicine capsules (Lianhua Qingwen Capsules). Overall, patients who took the drug had a shorter recovery time from symptoms compared with patients who were not given the traditional Chinese medicine intervention.
Moreover, 21 studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicine can help shorten the time for nucleic acid to turn negative; another 43 studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicine can reduce the proportion of non-severe patients who have become severe. Consistent with this finding, another open-label, a cluster-randomized trial involving 408 mild patients treated with another TCM granule reduced the likelihood of patients becoming severe. Meanwhile, in the whole study, no serious adverse events related to traditional Chinese medicine were found.
After the conference, the participating experts concluded: According to the relevant clinical outcome indicators, the Chinese medicines included in the study are beneficial for the treatment of new coronary pneumonia, especially for mild and common cases; the included traditional Chinese medicine can shorten the time of virus clearance, clinical symptom relief, and hospital stay when compared with simple conventional treatment. There is encouraging evidence that early use of traditional Chinese medicine can lead to better clinical outcomes for patients with mild to moderate disease.
The meeting also concluded that the intervention of the included Chinese medicine methods during conventional treatment is not only well-tolerated; but also has the same safety as a conventional treatment alone. However, there is limited evidence that TCM injections are beneficial in severe cases, and further evaluation is urgently needed.
Experts at the meeting made recommendations to WHO, including: Sharing the results of the consultation with member states promptly; encouraging member states to consider integrating traditional medicine interventions, such as traditional Chinese medicine, into their clinical management plans for COVID-19 in their health systems and regulatory frameworks; Encourage member states to consider the integrative medicine model (integrated Chinese and Western medicine) that has been developed and applied in China; promote international clinical trials to further evaluate the potential benefits and safety of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of patients with COVID-19 throughout the care process.
Experts at the meeting advised WHO member states to collaborate, where feasible, to develop a coherent path to improve healthcare systems, effectively manage current outbreaks and prepare for possible future pandemics.
After the meeting, Luqi Huang expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to introduce the efforts of Chinese TCM practitioners to WHO. He thanked the experts for their valuable suggestions to improve TCM research and stressed that the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of China stands ready to assist other countries in promoting the use of traditional medicine.
By Shiyue Luo
