Efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine to prevent and treat COVID-19 household close contacts in Hong Kong: an open-label, randomized controlled trial.
Front Immunol
; 15: 1359331, 2024.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38799438
ABSTRACT
Objectives:
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of CHM in the prevention of COVID-19 infection and treatment for COVID-19 related symptoms.Design:
Prospective open-label randomized controlled trial.Setting:
Participants' home in Hong Kong.Participants:
Participants who had household close contact with COVID-19-infected family members.Interventions:
Close contacts were stratified into 4 groups (cohort A, B, C, D) based on symptoms and infection status and were randomized in 41 ratio to receive CHM granules (9g/sachet, two times daily) or blank control for 7 days with 2 weeks of follow-up. Main outcomemeasures:
The primary outcome measure was the rate of positive nucleic acid tests. Secondary outcomes were the proportion of developed COVID-19 related symptoms and adverse events during the whole 3-week study period. Subgroup analysis was used to evaluate demographic factors associated with positive infection rates.Results:
A total of 2163 contacts were enrolled and randomly assigned to the CHM group (1720 contacts) and blank control (443 contacts) group. During the 21 days, the rate of PCR-positive cases in cohort A was markedly lower in the CHM group (3.6%) compared to the control group (7.0%) (P=0.036). Overall, the rate of infection in the CHM group was significantly lower than that in the control group (10.69% vs. 6.03%; RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.39-0.82) after 7-day treatment. No serious adverse events were reported during the medication period.Conclusion:
The preliminary findings indicate that CHM may be effective and safe in preventing COVID-19. Future double-blind, randomized controlled trials and long-term follow-up are needed to fully evaluate the efficacy of CHM in a larger contact population. Clinical trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT05269511.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Drugs, Chinese Herbal
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
Front Immunol
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China
Country of publication:
Suiza