TCM pill 'cuts virus risk in seniors'

Jane Cheung

Chinese medicine pills Jinhua Qinggan can greatly reduce elderly Covid patients' risk of developing serious infection and death and can also be taken as a preventive medicine, a medical alliance has said.

Hong Kong Alliance of Integrated Medicine Against Covid yesterday shared findings about the use of Jinhua Qinggan pills - one of three traditional Chinese medicines alongside Lianhua Qingwen capsules and Huoxiang Zhengqi tablets used to treat Covid patients in the mainland - in a care home for the elderly.

The pills were given to 75 residents when they were healthy, among whom 69 were eventually infected with Covid but none developed serious illness.

However, the group did not say whether the 69 elderly patients had taken other medication together with the Jinhua Qinggan pills.

But the alliance said three residents from the same care home who had not taken the pills subsequently contracted Covid and were all admitted to hospital due to serious symptoms. Two of them eventually passed away.

Hong Kong Registered Chinese Medicine Practitioners Association chairman Chan Wing-kwong said: "The most common symptoms for patients contracting Omicron are fever, respiratory discomfort like coughs and sore throat as well as digestive issues, which can be alleviated by ingredients in Jinhua.

"The pills can also boost elderly people's immunity and block the virus from entering the lungs," he said.

Not only can the pills be used as treatment in the early stages after the onset of symptoms, they can also be used to prevent infection spread to close contacts and high-risk people.

Elderly Commission chairman Lam Ching-choi said dozens of Covid patients from care homes staying at the temporary care center in Kai Tak had a good response to the hybrid treatment of Chinese and western medicine.

"At the center, Chinese and western medicine practitioners attend patients together. TCM practitioners can utilize their massage techniques to supplement the lack of occupational and physiotherapists in these centers."

That came as Chief Executive Carrie Lam - after consulting TCM experts from the mainland - said that Hong Kong will strive to utilize a hybrid treatment of Chinese and western medicine.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said both Chinese and western medicine practitioners have been stationed in the North Lantau Hospital Infection Control Centre and Asia-World Expo.

So far, some 300 patients have received treatment by the joint team and over 9.3 million packs of TCM have been distributed.