(Reprinted from Guangming Daily)

On April 25, 2022, Huang Luqi, deputy director of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was interviewed by reporters in Shanghai. He said that in this round of Shanghai epidemic prevention and control and patient treatment, both Chinese and Western medicine should be emphasized, and Chinese and Western medical treatments should be combined. Chinese medicine played an important role in “prevention, treatment, and recovery stages”.

Chinese medicine is widely used

At the beginning of this round of the epidemic, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission and the Municipal Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued the "Prevention Plan of Oral Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Exogenous Epidemic Diseases in Susceptible Populations in Spring 2022" and the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Prevention of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Key Populations in the City". The government fully recognize the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine in "preventing disease", and promote the integration of traditional Chinese medicine into the "four early" (early detection, early reporting, early isolation, and early treatment) as soon as possible.

Huang Luqi stated that the TCM teams from TCM and general hospitals from various provinces and cities actively participates in the treatments in designated hospitals and Fangcang shelter hospitals in Shanghai. Under the guidance of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Shanghai local authorities formulated "Shanghai Expert Consensus on Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis and Treatment of Novel Coronavirus Infection (Spring Edition 2022)" and "Notice on the Implementation Plan for Clinical Application of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Designated Hospitals and Isolation and Treatment Places".

Huang Luqi said, “Except for a very small number of pregnant women, infants and special patients and other unsuitable people, traditional Chinese medicine is widely used, especially in the treatment of asymptomatic infections and patients with mild symptoms, with traditional Chinese medicine as the main treatment."

Difficulties and challenges faced by traditional Chinese medicine treatment

How to cooperate the treatments of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine, and the co-treatment of COVID and underlying diseases in the elderly population is a major challenge.

"The biggest difficulty in the treatment of traditional Chinese medicine at present is the integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment of the elderly." Huang Luqi pointed out that most of the patients in this epidemic are middle-aged and elderly. At present, 30% of the hospitalized patients are older than 60 years old, and 60% of them have underlying diseases.

Given that the current treatment focus is on severe and critically ill patients among the elderly, Shanghai has established national and municipal expert groups to conduct consultations and inspections, conduct regular case studies, and conduct daily statistics on the treatment of critically ill elderly patients with traditional Chinese medicine. "At the same time, we must pay more attention to the treatment of women and children, especially the special groups of infants and young children." Huang Luqi emphasized.

The effect of traditional Chinese medicine preventive intervention is obvious in the close contact population

It is reported that Shanghai has adopted traditional Chinese medicine intervention measures for people considered close contact. In the early stage of this round of epidemics, a plan was issued to incorporate traditional Chinese medicine prevention work into the joint prevention and control mechanism of the city and district, focusing on old communities and urban areas with positive cases. In Zhongcun, key groups such as community workers, couriers, police officers, and construction site personnel of makeshift hospitals are given preventive interventions with traditional Chinese medicine.

 According to Huang Luqi, the results of a recent sampling survey conducted by the Shanghai Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine showed that a total of 5,962 people who were considered close contact were admitted to the 10 isolation locations. In 6 isolation locations, more than 80% of people took traditional Chinese medicine, and the nucleic acid positive rate was 18.57%. In the other 4 isolation locations, less than 50% of people took traditional Chinese medicine, and the nucleic acid positive rate was 26.82%, which is statistically significant. "This set of data fully reflects that the preventive intervention of traditional Chinese medicine in the early stage of epidemic prevention has obvious protective effect." Huang Luqi said.

TCM non-drug treatments are popular

In order to fully support Shanghai's anti-epidemic work, a total of 9,285 TCM medical institutions from 20 provinces have sent a total of 9,285 people, including 4 medical teams that take over makeshift hospitals. At the same time, more than 2,000 medical personnel were dispatched from TCM medical institutions in Shanghai, who participated in the management of the reorganization system or some wards of 28 makeshift hospitals.

Huang Luqi introduced that in designated hospitals and Fangcang shelter hospitals, in addition to Chinese herbal decoctions and proprietary Chinese medicines, non-drug therapies such as acupuncture, ear acupuncture, acupoint application, pediatric massage, and traditional Chinese medicine exercises are also widely used. In addition, medical staff have also set up online courses of traditional Chinese medicine in Fangcang shelter hospitals, leading patients to carry out traditional Chinese medicine exercises, which are very popular.

Huang Luqi said that in the follow-up epidemic prevention and control work, we will continue to improve and promote the coordination of Chinese and Western medicine in the newly-built designated hospitals and Fangcang shelter hospitals, so as to ensure that Chinese medicine is fully and deeply involved in the treatment of patients with COVID. "There is a mechanism, a team, a measure, and an effect". At the same time, focusing on the five aspects of "reducing the morbidity rate, reducing the time of negative conversion, reducing hospitalization time, reducing the rate of severe conversion, and reducing the mortality rate", we will focus on clinical observation and clinical program optimization, and further clarify the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine.