The report of the "WHO Expert Evaluation Meeting on the Treatment of Covid-19 in Traditional Chinese Medicine" was released on the WHO official website on 31 March, with 21 international experts from 6 WHO regions participating in the evaluation meeting, and the meeting report pointed out that Chinese medicine can effectively treat new crown pneumonia, reduce the transition of mild and ordinary cases into severe disease, shorten the time of virus clearance, and improve the clinical prognosis of mild and ordinary patients.
The report also encourages member states to consider the integrated medicine model (integrated Medicine Model) developed and applied by China; to effectively manage the current outbreak and prepare for possible future pandemics.
At the evaluation meeting, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of China welcomed WHO's continued support for traditional medicine and expressed China's willingness to assist other WHO Member States in strengthening the role of traditional medicine in their health systems.
Cover of the report of the "World Health Organization Expert Evaluation Meeting on the Treatment of COVID-19 in Traditional Chinese Medicine"
21 international experts jointly evaluated three TCM reports
On 17 January 2022, after the WHO Director-General and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine held a high-level policy dialogue in Geneva, WHO decided to convene an expert meeting to assess the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in treating COVID-19.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on social media on January 18
Subsequently, from February 28 to March 2, the expert evaluation meeting of traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of new crown pneumonia was held. The 21 international experts attending the meeting were from 6 WHO regions, including 5 MEMBERS of the WHO Expert Advisory Group, 8 representatives of the WHO Collaborating Centres, 3 members of the WHO International Regulatory Cooperation In Herbal Medicines, and academicians from the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Technical staff from WHO headquarters, regional and country offices were also present.
Professor Harry Fong of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Professor Elaine Elisabetsky of the Institute of Health Basic Sciences of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, were elected co-chairs of the conference. Huang Luqi, President of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, served as the conference consultant.
The meeting evaluated three reports on traditional Chinese medicine and COVID-19, namely clinical applications, research and evidence-based evaluation reports provided by the Chinese National Expert Group. The evidence-based review report focused on reported findings and 12 registered and published randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
International expert consensus: Chinese medicine is safe and effective in the treatment of new crown
At the evaluation meeting, Chinese experts demonstrated the clinical research basis of the TCM report.
According to experts, as of March 2022, the China Clinical Trials Registry (the first-level registry of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registration Platform) has 859 Chinese COVID-19 clinical research registrations, of which 213 are related to traditional Chinese medicine.
Of the studies that took into account mild cases, 106 studies examined the effects of traditional Chinese medicine on fever, 103 evaluated the effects of traditional Chinese medicine on cough, and 94 considered traditional Chinese medicine and fatigue. There is also an example of a multicentre randomized controlled trial that included 284 patients in 23 hospitals in nine provinces in China who were treated with Chinese medicine capsules (Lianhua Qingpeng capsules). Overall, it has been reported that patients taking the drug have a shorter recovery time for symptoms than patients who have not been given traditional Chinese medicine intervention.
21 studies have shown that Chinese medicine helps shorten the time of nucleic acid negative, and another 43 studies have shown that Chinese medicine can reduce the proportion of non-critical patients who turn heavy. Consistent with this finding, another non-blind, cluster-randomized trial included 408 mild patients and treated them with another TCM granule, reducing the likelihood of patients becoming heavier.
Throughout the study, no serious adverse events associated with traditional Chinese medicine were identified.
After three days of discussion, after discussion, the participating domestic and foreign experts came to the conclusion that according to the clinically relevant outcome indicators, the chinese medicines included in the study were beneficial to the treatment of new crown pneumonia, especially for mild and ordinary cases; the data showed that Chinese medicines were beneficial for reducing the conversion of mild and ordinary cases into severe cases; for mild and ordinary cases, compared with simple conventional treatment, the included Chinese medicines included in the study could shorten the virus clearance time, clinical symptom relief time and hospitalization time when compared with conventional treatment alone; at the same time, There is encouraging evidence that early use of TCM leads to better clinical outcomes for mild and general patients.
The meeting also concluded that the use of TCM methods included in the study for intervention in the implementation of conventional treatment was not only well tolerated, but also the safety was comparable to that of conventional treatment alone.
The conclusions of the meeting also noted that there is limited evidence on the benefits of TCM injections in severe cases and further evaluation is urgently needed.