Korean Medicine Doctors Volunteer to Conduct Contactless Treatment for COVID-19 Patients

 

Korean Medicine Doctors Volunteer to Conduct Contactless Treatment for 

COVID-19 Patients

In February 2020, corona virus infections spread rapidly in Korea’s metropolitan city of Daegu. The rapid spread resulted in the shortage of hospital beds, forcing more than 2,000 patients to wait for hospitalization at home amid reports of death cases. Hence, about 70 public health doctors of Korean Medicine nationwide volunteered to be dispatched. Some of the doctors who had been consulting suspected patients and collecting samples at regional screening centers also volunteered to go to Daegu to give support. The Korean Medicine doctors set up a plan to treat COVID-19 patients with no direct contact with their resolve to “do right things in right timing” as health care providers.

Recommendation for COVID-19 Korean Medicine treatment announced

The Korean Medicine community created its recommendation, based on the experiences of China that had used traditional medicines while undergoing the serious spread of infections before Korea. The recommendation was drawn up on the basis of expert consultations from related fields of Korean Medicine by referring to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States and the recommendations from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) and related academic societies on top of China’s COVID-19 pneumonia guidelines.  

1) Etiology
2) Epidemiology
3) Clinical characteristics
4) Diagnostic criteria
5) Clinical classification
6) Differential diagnosis
7) Treatment
8) Standards for quarantine release and discharge from hospital
9) Prevention and management
10) Limits of this recommendation

11) Development methods of Korean Medicine treatment recommendation

The recommendation was drawn up in the order stated above and also included: descriptions of recommended prescriptions, recommendations related to the safety of herbal ingredients and grounds for antiviral effects of herbal medicines.

 

Contactless treatment launched at Korean Medicine treatment centers

The Association of Korean Medicine (AKOM) opened a Korean Medicine treatment center in Daegu on March 9, 2020. The contactless treatment was conducted in the following procedures for patients who had been in self-quarantine even after testing positive for COVID-19 owing to the limitation of hospital rooms and those who had shown symptoms even after being officially declared recovered:

1. Treatment conducted in accordance with procedures the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) announced concerning “temporary permission plans on telephone counseling or prescriptions and proxy prescriptions.”

2. Consultation for 15 to 20 minutes according to treatment manuals to check whether confirmed patients have underlying diseases, commonly taken medicines, presence of fever, chill and coughing and fatigue degree, etc.

3.  Prescribing herbal medicines, whose antiviral and enhanced immunity effects were verified, for free along with Lung Cleansing and Detoxifying Decoction, a Korean herbal medicine commonly used to treat COVID-19.

Source: Video of telephone counseling for COVID-19 Korean medicine treatment campaign / AKOM_TV

 

As volunteer doctors’ devotion became widely known, the number of treated people soared, reaching 3,356 (946 new patients, 2,410 second-visit patients. and 1,923 prescriptions) by March 30; and this indicates that 10% of all 9,000 confirmed patients in Korea received Korean medicine treatment via telephone counseling. A new treatment center opened in Seoul on March 31, three weeks later, to accommodate the growing patients amid the rise in the number of contactless treatment cases.

      * AKOM personnel not included.

      * Calculated the total number by computing morning, afternoon and full-time participants as one person.

 

Upon hearing the news about activities of the Korean medicine treatment centers, a number of Korean medicine doctors across the country wrapped up their work temporarily and volunteered to help. Many patients took their turns for the better through elaborate manuals, meticulous care and careful interviews. In the seventh week, 20% of all confirmed patients in Korea received Korean medicine treatment. It was the consequences of unity achieved in harmony together the Korean medicine members who did not hesitate to give their support and donations, doctors who got together from across the country to volunteer, undergraduates from Daegu Haany University and other Universities as well who helped their senior Korean medicine doctors, operating staff and volunteer doctors.

Driving force of growth: 

teamwork through Web-based conferences (webinar)

 During the conferences which took place every day after treatments, Korean medicine doctors shared their treatment experiences and major cases. Medical teams’ knowhow was shared via video conferences so that doctors who didn’t take part in the teams could also join. Many cases were shared during the conference and the centers were able to show developments and progress week after week as opinions of the advisory panel—comprised of pulmonary internal medicine professors—were reflected. The “scent bag” therapy, an idea that had come out during the conference, was created for patients who lost their senses of taste and smell, a symptom unique to COVID-19 patients. Also, the “COVID-19 healthy mind method” was introduced to deal with depression and insomnia due to the lengthy quarantine measure under the support of the Korean Society of Oriental Neuropsychiatry. Diverse Korean medicine prescriptions based on pattern identification were nice alternatives to patients struggling with side effects from the unproven Ebola treatment drug (remdesivir) and the malaria treatment drug (chloroquine). 

 The contactless treatment through the establishment of the Korean medicine treatment centers in Daegu and Seoul, coupled with the Korean medicine community’s voluntary COVID-19 response through various studies and discussions via webinars, contributed practically to Korea’s COVID-19 quarantine. In fact, patients reacted eagerly to the Korean medicine community’s efforts to help their physical and mental recovery, and the volunteers from Korean medicine doctors and Korean medicine prescriptions were actually the sole medicine for patients who had not received any treatment while being quarantined. We hope that the results of these efforts will be reflected in the country’s quarantine system when the next mutated COVID-19 is prevalent or other viruses spread, and that the COVID-19 will be terminated as soon as possible around the world.

 

[Source]
 Korean medicine community’s efforts in the COVID-19 quarantine: Focusing on Korean medicine treatment centers Park Jong-hun, director of insurance at the Association of Korean Medicine (AKOM) / The Journal of Korean Medicine, Volume 1, Edition 8, 2020, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine

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