• Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province in China, the infection spread rapidly across the globe and was soon declared a pandemic
• Treatment of COVID-19 is mainly symptomatic and supportive, and  several drugs are currently under investigation for the management of the viral disease
• There is scope for evaluation of herbal medicine as adjuvant treatment of COVID-19 patients

A retrospective case-control study of COVID-19-confirmed cases initially admitted for isolation treatment

Aim: To determine the adjuvant efficacy of natural herbal medicine (NHM) in association with Western medicine in the treatment of COVID-19. 

Design: Retrospective, 1:1 matched, case-control study of the first cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 cases from January 17 to January 28, 2020.

Overall, 22 out of 36 confirmed patients were included in this study, split into two groups of 11 patients each: the NHM group received NHM with standard Western medicine treatment; the control group was given standard Western medicine treatment only.

Main evaluation indicators:

• Improvement of clinical symptoms like fever, cough and diarrhea after hospitalization
• Pathogen nucleic acid test result of respiratory tract and fecal specimens after hospitalization
• Change in chest CT examination after hospitalization

Findings

Reference

Zhang H-T, Huang M-X, Liu X, et al. Evaluation of the Adjuvant Efficacy of Natural Herbal Medicine on COVID-19: A Retrospective Matched Case-Control Study. Am J Chin Med. 2020;48(4):779-792.