Chinese authorities are now looking towards its traditional medicines for curing the fatal coronavirus disease that has claimed thousands of lives in the country and abroad countries since its outbreak last year.
According to the health officials, the hospitals in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, are now using the 3000-year-old Traditional Chinese Medicines, called TCM, with the modern-day medicines to be administered to the patients undergoing treatment for the viral outbreak.
Health officials have observed positive results with the new medicinal concoction
The death toll in China owing to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has touched 1,665, with additional positive cases being reported every hour. So far, the TCM has been administered towards the treatment of more than half of the confirmed cases reported in Hubei, the worst affected province with more than 66,000 confirmed coronavirus cases reported so far.
Giving the details about the new approach towards the treatment, Wang Hesheng, deputy head of China's National Health Commission, said: "Since the beginning of the outbreak, the government has attached importance to both Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western medicine by mobilising the strongest scientific research and medical forces in both fields to treat the patients."
Without disclosing much about the ongoing treatment using TCM Wang said that their efforts have shown some good result. "By coordinating the resources of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, we strive to improve the cure rate and reduce fatalities by the greatest possible amount to effectively safeguard the safety and health of the people," Wang said while addressing a press conference.
TCM treatment showing positive effects on critical patients - Health officials
Jiao Yahui, senior official at the National Health Commission, revealed that the concoction of TCM and western medicines have shown encouraging results in the patients tested positive for COVID-19.
"For severe and critically ill patients, antivirus treatment, together with treatment combining traditional Chinese and Western medicine and supportive treatments, such as the use of ventilator, blood plasma from recovered patients and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), have shown effect," said Jiao.
Jiao further said that after seeing the positive outcome, the doctors are being advised to use ECMO, a treatment using a pump to circulate blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream, at the early stage to help restore patients' blood oxygen saturation and reduce fatalities.
Around 2,200 workers specialising in TCM have been sent to Hubei, to help in treating the positive coronavirus cases. The revised method of counting the number of confirmed cases had instantly added 15,000 new cases in Hubei's list of confirmed cases.
