Traditional Chinese Medicine in Treatment of COVID-19 and Viral Disease: Efficacies and Clinical Evidence

Abstract

Xue Ding,1 Lei-Lei Fan,2 Shi-Xi Zhang,3 Xiu-Xia Ma,4 Peng-Fei Meng,4 Liang-Ping Li,5 Ming-Yan Huang,5 Jia-Le Guo,5 Peng-Zhan Zhong,5 Li-Ran Xu5 1Department of Medical, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiovascular, Yellow River Central Hospital, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Infectious Disease, Shangqiu Municipal Hospital, Shangqiu, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of AIDS Clinical Research Center, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of the First Clinical Medical College, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Li-Ran Xu, Department of the First Clinical Medical College, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, 19 Renmin Road, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains an uncontained, worldwide pandemic. While battling the disease in China, the Chinese government has actively promoted the use of traditional Chinese medicine, and many studies have been conducted to determine the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine for treating COVID-19. The present review discusses the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine in curing COVID-19 and provides clinical evidence from all confirmed cases in China. Applications of traditional Chinese medicine and specific recipes for treating other viral infections, such as those caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and influenza A viruses (including H1N1), are also discussed. Studies have reported that traditional Chinese medicine treatment plays a significant role in improving clinical symptoms. Therefore, further investigation may be of high translational value in revealing novel targeted therapies for COVID-19.Keywords: traditional Chinese medicine, coronavirus disease-2019, influenza A viruses, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, clinical evidence

Keywords

• traditional chinese medicine
• coronavirus disease-2019
• influenza a viruses
• acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus
• clinical evidence.