Herbal medicine for coronavirus

 

Chinese herbal medicine for coronavirus disease 2019: A systematic review and meta-analysis

"In China, the pandemic is under control due to government strong measure, public surveillance, and utilization of both CWM and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). TCM, especially Chinese herbal medicine (CHM), has been used extensively in the treatment of several acute epidemic infectious diseases including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), influenza A H1N1, avian influenza, malaria, etc [2,3]. According to the research reports of World Health Organization, compared to CWM group, TCM group has achieved remarkable therapeutic effect with 3 days for average fever reduction time, 10 days for average hospital stay, low medical costs, and no death, sequelae, transfer, and infection of nurses and doctors during the SARS epidemic in 2003 [4]. Among the 564 patients with COVID-19 admitted to Jiangxia Fangcang TCM Hospital, 482 were cured, and the rest 82 complicated with basic diseases were transferred to designated hospitals. During the treatment, no patients turned from mild to critical cases, and no nurses and doctors were infected by COVID-19. TCM has played an indispensable role and TCM therapeutic schedule was included in the guideline on diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 [5]."

"In general, this systematic review and meta-analysis suggested that CHM maybe beneficial for the treatment of COVID-19 in improving clinical symptoms, imaging, and laboratory indicators, shortening the course of disease, and reducing the number of severe cases. However, considering the shortcomings of original trials, further rigorously designed trials following CONSORT Statement [45] and CONSORT extension for herbal medicine [46] are warranted to confirm the conclusions. CHM, especially classical Chinese herbal formulas, could be used as potential candidates for COVID-19 in this battle."  

These are some excerpts from the article of July 2, 2020

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7331568/?fbclid=IwY2xjawLagMZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE1T3V2ZmZUVTlNUTE3RkpHAR7UWydnrBvVpviITq1-7IAOxgFQr207A76bO0ooVKc_WRzcv4bsE49VHBrXiA_aem_HvbcI6qOgPkyxL8OzAH29w

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