KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — There is no scientific evidence that traditional Malay and Chinese herbal medicines can treat the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said today although it did not discount the possibility that they may help in the recovery.
In the daily Covid-19 press conference, the MOH director-general said that such traditional medicines can be used to complement the treatment instead of being the treatment itself.
“The use of traditional complementary medicine is not used as a treatment but to complement the recovery process.
“For Covid-19, there is no cure yet but the use of acupuncture and herbal medicine can probably speed up the recovery process,” said Dr Noor Hisham when asked on Chinese medical expert opinions regarding the use of traditional remedies for the pandemic.
Furthermore, he explained that the ministry’s discussions with their counterparts in China was not on remedial cures but on their experience in curbing and controlling the infection rate of the illness.
Dr Noor Hisham and his team will have an exit conference with the Chinese medical experts tomorrow and plan on having a more detailed discussion with them.
Their goal is to identify the best practices in battling the virus and also to avoid pitfalls that Beijing had encountered in Wuhan and other cities affected by the virus in China.
