Analysis on the medication rule of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of COVID-19 patients

Objective: To describe patterns of utilization of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in the treatment of patients with coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).Methods: Adult patients with COVID-19 who received TCM treatment were divided into a non-serious group(mild and moderate types) and a serious group(severe and critical types) according to their admission conditions. The medical records and prescriptions of these patients were investigated to determine their TCM utilization patterns.Results: In all, 3,872 COVID-19 patients were included. Oral Chinese traditional patent medicine(CPM) was the most commonly used type of TCM(83.2%), fol owed by decoction(64.4%). As for medication pattern, the proportion of multi-drug combinations was higher than single drug use(55.0% vs. 45.0%). Decoction combined with oral CPM was the most common combination(39.1%,1,514/3,872). Oral y administered, injected, and external y applied CPM were significantly more common in the serious group than in the non-serious, while decoction and non-drug TCM treatments were more common in the non-serious than in the serious group.Multi-drug combinations were used for the majority of patients in both groups, mainly in the form of decoction combined with oral CPM.Serious patients were analysed by three groups of different prognoses and outcomes, including discharged after improvement,discharged after relapse and improvement, died final y. The two most common medication patterns were decoction combined with oral CPM and oral CPM alone in the two final y discharged groups. Oral CPM alone or used in combination with injected CPM were seen most commonly in the death group. Significant differences were established in medication patterns among patients in these three groups.Conclusions: Oral CPM was the mainly used TCM for COVID-19 patients, followed by decoction. More common medication pattern was multi-drug combination, especially decoction combined with oral CPM. The treatment measures and medication patterns of TCM commonly used in COVID-19 patients with the range of conditions found in this study should be further explored in the future to provide a more complete reference for COVID-19 treatment.

Progress of Active Surveillance for Vaccine Safety in China

Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective interventions for saving lives and promoting public health.The coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic is providing a stark reminder of the importance and power of vaccines(1).However,vaccines can cause harm,and their rare safety concerns have increased in relative visibility as successful control and prevention of vaccine preventable diseases has diminished awareness of these diseases.