Bulletin No. 1, 2020

The Corona Chronicle 27 While Western medicine is still universally adopted in combating the pandemic, the theories and practice of Chinese medicine, developed over thousands of years, should not be overlooked. The disease has filled people’s hearts with fear and anxiety. Chinese medicine, which sees the human body as an organic whole, values the integration of nature and humanity, and tries to achieve a balance between the internal organs through the observation of natural laws, can complement Western medicine. According to Prof. Lin Zhixiu , Associate Director of the School of Chinese Medicine and Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine, Chinese medicine has played a significant part in our battle against the pandemic, and, in the long run, deepened our understanding of the enigmatic virus, and the equally mysterious human constitution. In the absence of vaccines and specific medicine, Chinese medicine practitioners have participated in treating the disease since the early days of the outbreak in China. In fact, in some makeshift cabin hospitals in Wuhan, Chinese medicine has played a leading part in treating patients, with Western medicine playing a complementary part. Chinese medicine has proved effective in relieving symptoms such as fever, cough and fatigue. It has also helped shorten the duration of hospitalization, prevent non-serious cases from developing into serious ones, improve the recovery rate and reduce the death rate. Among the tens of thousands of patients in China who have been discharged, most of them had received integrated treatment, but there are also a number of them who have been treated with Chinese medicine alone. Prof. Lin Zhixiu Associate Director of the School of Chinese Medicine