“Some good results” as TCM joins western medicine in battle against Covid-19

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has joined in the battle against Covid-19, according to a Bloomberg report.

TCM, along with western medicine, is being applied to patients with Covid-19, according to Mr Wang Hesheng, the new head of the health commission in Hubei, the province in central China where the novel coronavirus originated.

 Mr Wang said on Saturday (Feb 15) that TCM was administered to over half the patients in Hubei diagnosed with Covid-19 and that “our efforts have shown some good results”.

Some of the best experts in TCM are now deployed in Hubei for “research and treatment”,  and around 2,000 TCM practitioners have been sent there.

While there have been reports of some anti-HIV medicines, when given with drugs to treat  influenza, being effective against Covid-19, there have been no approved treatments or vaccines for the novel coronavirus.

Doctors and researchers said at the beginning of the outbreak that it may take some time to find a cure, and that a vaccine may take as long as one year to develop and test.

Recently, however, an experimental antiviral drug developed by the American company Gilead Sciences has been showing some promise. Two batches have already arrived in Wuhan for ongoing clinical trials involving a total of 760 patients. 

Read related: TCM institution facing severe shortage, seeks donation of face mask

Mr Wang stepped to the plate as head of Hubei’s health commission after the previous head was removed from his position. He has also been named as a member of the Standing Committee in Hubei, which is responsible for many of the major decisions in the province. He is the deputy chief of the National Health Commission.

There are 68,509 confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection in China. The country’s death count now stands at 1,666 people.

In Singapore, the Ministry of Health confirmed eight additional cases of Covid-19, bringing the total to 75. All the new cases had no recent travel history to China but are linked to previously confirmed cases in the city. Five of the new cases are connected to the Grace Assembly of God church cluster, one case is linked to the cluster at the Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site, one case had contact with the 59th confirmed case, and the last one is related to a separate case. /TISG