5 Traditional Chinese medicine
In the latest treatment guidelines, Chinese doctors included traditional Chinese medicine as one of the drugs for COVID-19 (Guan, Ni, Hu, Liang, Ou, He, Liu, Shan, Lei, Hui, Du, Li, Zeng, Yuen, Chen, Tang, Wang, Chen, Xiang, Li, Wang, Liang, Peng, Wei, Liu, Hu, Peng, Wang, Liu, Chen, Li, Zheng, Qiu, Luo, Ye, Zhu, Zhong, et al., 2020). Earlier studies showed that traditional Chinese medicine products used for the treatment of respiratory infectious diseases may provide treatment benefits to COVID-19. For instance, Lianhuaqingwen capsule and Shufengjiedu capsule have independent antiviral effect and synergistic antiviral effect on influenza virus, respectively (Ding et al., 2017).
In addition, Qingfei Paidu decoction and Glycyrrhiza Ganjiang decoction, two general medicines, have been proposed as treatments for COVID-19 in China (Ren, Zhang, & Wang, 2020) A research showed that 4 cases of COVID-19 showed improvement after treatment with Lopinavir / Ritonavir, Abido, and Shufeng jiedu capsule. However, the efficacy, safety and mechanisms of these drugs against COVID-19 should be further confirmed in clinical experiments (Guan, Ni, Hu, Liang, Ou, He, Liu, Shan, Lei, Hui, Du, Li, Zeng, Yuen, Chen, Tang, Wang, Chen, Xiang, Li, Wang, Liang, Peng, Wei, Liu, Hu, Peng, Wang, Liu, Chen, Li, Zheng, Qiu, Luo, Ye, Zhu, Zhong, et al., 2020). Currently, there are no specific antiviral drugs or vaccines for COVID-19. The drugs used to treat patients are selected in accordance with experience from previous treatments of SARS, MERS, or other new influenza viruses (Lu, 2020). Moreover, traditional Chinese medicines not only weaken the virus, but also prevent infection, regulate immune response, block inflammation, and help the patients recover. Furthermore, the prevention and treatment measures of COVID-19 fully reflect the idea of ”prevention and treatment of diseases” (Ren et al., 2020).