We’ll Use Traditional Chinese Medicine To Fight AIDS, Says China - Officials in China have said that using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the country will double the number of HIV/AIDS patients it can give treatments to. This was part of a five year plan from China’s State Council to increase the use of ancient practice in fighting HIV/AIDS.
“The number of people living with AIDS who are treated with traditional Chinese medicine should be twice what it was in 2015,” the State Council said on its website.
The plan outlined collaboration between traditional Chinese medicine departments and national health and family planning commissions “to find a therapeutic regimen which combines traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicines”.
The TCM push aligns with a recent effort by the government to make the practice a priority for both development and publicity.
TCM, dating back thousands of years, treats ailments using herbal mixtures and physical therapies such as acupuncture and cupping.
The science behind such remedies has long been questioned. Last month medical researchers disputed a study claiming that acupuncture could cure babies of colic.
In late December the Chinese legislature passed its first TCM law, which will allow practitioners to be licensed and make it easier for them to open clinics.
Earlier this year, China added a list of traditional Chinese Medicines to the country’s National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL). Medicines listed will be partly sponsored by the state and the recent change is seen as a push for TCM. Currently there are over 2,000 drugs listed, most of which are traditional medicines, however, modern medicines are also included.
There are about 450,000 TCM practitioners across China, according to the State Council Information Office.
The government sees the practice as a cost-saving alternative to modern healthcare.
The new initiative to tackle HIV/AIDS will aim to reduce “AIDS-related homosexual behaviour” by at least ten per cent and mother-to-children transmission rates to less than four per cent.
In a 2015 report China told the UN that it had 501,000 cases of HIV/AIDS as of the end of 2014.
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