Current Global Status and Future Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Prevention and Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019

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.