ROME, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of medical experts from China and Italy exchanged opinions and experiences on the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in China during the Italy session of an event live-streamed globally from here.

Organized by the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFCMS), the event, entitled "Expert Dialogue on Anti-Epidemic Experiences with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)" on Wednesday attracted more than 90,000 viewers in over 40 countries.

The speakers were Chinese experts who had first-hand experience in diagnosing and treating for COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China. Among them were Zhang Boli, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Liu Qingquan, president of the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Zhang Zhongde, vice president of the Guangdong Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.

The experts discussed the efficacy of Chinese and western medicine in treating COVID-19 and the TCM program for diagnosing and treating severely or critically ill patients.

Medical experts and scholars from Italy's National Institute of Health (ISS), Policlinico di Roma, University of Roma la Sapienza , University of Roma Rome Tor Vergata and other institutions discussed with their Chinese counterparts ways to use TCM to support the human immune system, to analyze the spread of the virus from the point of view of TCM, and to employ TCM to alleviate the side effects of western medicine and promote its effectiveness.

This event provided a platform for experts from the two countries to coordinate their efforts to fight the pandemic and to exchange ideas, said Sun Chengyong, the science and technology counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Italy.

In his opening speech, Sun recalled the establishment of the joint TCM laboratory by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Italian Ministry of Health in 2006.

Over the past years, the joint laboratory has made great headway in cooperative research, academic exchanges, personnel training, and cultural communication on TCM, he said.

Alice Fauci, researcher at the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), said that it is very important for Chinese medical experts to share their coronavirus-related experiences with their peers all over the world.

The WFCMS has been organizing similar experience-sharing events since the outbreak of the pandemic.

To date, four online exchanges between Chinese and foreign experts have been held, with the participation of six high-level experts in TCM, who had been on the frontline in Wuhan during the early stages of the pandemic.