| REVIEW ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2021 | Volume
: 7
| Issue : 2 | Page : 155-166 |
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Current global status and future development of traditional Chinese medicine in the prevention and treatment of coronavirus disease 2019
Ze-Jia Song1, Wan Najbah Nik Nabil2, Zhi-Chao Xi1, Hong-Xi Xu3
1 School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
2 School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China; Pharmaceutical Services Program, Ministry of Health, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
3 School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine; Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
Correspondence Address:
Prof. Hong-Xi Xu
Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203
China
Prof. Zhi-Chao Xi
School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203
China
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/wjtcm.wjtcm_43_20
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Recognizing the potential of globalizing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), this review summarizes the current global use of TCM for COVID-19, status of the internationalization of TCM, and strategy on globalizing TCM for COVID-19. COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus disease that has sparked a pandemic in March 2020 affecting over 110 countries. Although researchers have been racing to develop targeted anti-COVID-19 treatment and vaccine, they are still currently unavailable. Thus, in treating patients infected with COVID-19, western medicine mainly recommended symptomatic treatment and monitoring. Existing drugs are used in the context of clinical trials, and the FDA still not yet approved these drugs for COVID-19. On the other hand, TCM proposed herbal treatment for suspected individuals to take within their observation period, as well as for confirmed COVID-19 patients to take during active phase of disease and during recovery. In China, Integrative Chinese-Western Medicine had been used in treating 91.5% of COVID-19 patients and showed its strength in reducing disease severity, shortening recovery time, and lowering the mortality rate. Despite obstacles in globalizing TCM for the treatment of COVID-19, promoting appropriate use of locally registered TCM products may prevent disease in susceptible individuals, improve the quality of life, and assist in the recovery of COVID-19 patients. With increasing global acceptance, TCM may play a more important role in the battle against infectious disease in the future.
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