Many traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctors, including post-90s medical workers, have been fighting the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic on the frontline in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province.

Fan Cunyu, born in 1990, is one of them. "I studied TCM and am a respiratory physician. I have no reason to chicken out," said Fan, who is with the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine.

Fan volunteered to treat novel coronavirus patients in the hospital’s isolation wards after the outbreak, and was mainly responsible for applying TCM methods to treat patients.

"The TCM experts in our hospital have developed a TCM prescription, and my team treats patients based on the prescription and their condition," Fan said, adding that TCM treatment significantly improves the patients’ conditions.

"TCM has shown a curative effect," Fan said, noting that as a young TCM doctor, it is his responsibility to carry forward the best elements of TCM.

When no new COVID-19 cases were reported at the hospital on March 15, Fan rested a week, then resumed normal outpatient services.

28-year-old Zhan Mingming, an acupuncture doctor from the Hubei Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, also volunteered to join the fight against the virus on Jan. 22, and began her work at the hospital’s isolation wards a few days later.

"I wanted to do my part, as our hospital received a lot of patients," she said, worrying that she was not up to the job as she had only been working in the hospital for one year.

Over the next month, Zhan made the rounds of the wards every morning and instructed patients how to take traditional Chinese medicine.

When one patient with mild symptoms initially refused to take traditional Chinese medicine, she and her colleagues talked with him and taught him TCM knowledge every day.

"Finally, the patient accepted the TCM treatment," she noted, adding that after treatment, he met the standard for recovery.

After a week’s rest, Zhan began to work at a rehabilitation center in the hospital, where she used TCM methods such as moxibustion and acupuncture to treat 10 to 20 patients every day.

Hu Wen, a TCM doctor at the Jiangxia District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Wuhan, had a rather different experience.

After receiving 15 suspected cases at the beginning of the outbreak, she herself became a confirmed COVID-19 case on Jan. 25. Fortunately, she recovered and was discharged from hospital on Feb. 3. After a 14-day quarantine, Hu returned to the frontline and donated 300 ml of blood plasma to save others, becoming one of the first 20 recovered coronavirus patients to donate plasma.

Hu and her colleagues applied TCM and Western medicine in their treatment of patients. "We tailored TCM remedies for patients, effectively preventing patients with light symptoms from turning into severe cases," she said.

When the last 18 patients were discharged from the hospital on March 6, Hu and her colleagues set up a rehabilitation center for subsequent visits to be made to discharged patients.

Rao Mingyue, a TCM doctor from the department of critical care medicine at the Wuhan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, prepares a TCM remedy for patients. The combination of TCM and Western medicine has greatly improved patients’ conditions.

"I encourage them every day, and now they have recovered and been discharged from our hospital," Rao said. On March 16, all patients in the hospital’s ICU were discharged.