Press Release
HKBU aims to recruit 5,000 close contacts of COVID-19 patients for clinical study on Chinese medicine prevention and treatment
Wednesday, 16 Mar 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge number of infections and deaths. To further improve the strategy to cope with the disease, the School of Chinese Medicine (SCM) at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has launched the "Clinical Study on the Prevention and Treatment of Close Contacts of COVID-19 Patients with Chinese Medicine".
The study is now recruiting 5,000 close contacts who live in the same household as COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong, with the aim of evaluating the efficacy of a Chinese medicine formula in terms of the prevention of COVID-19 and the treatment of its symptoms. The study includes a clinical assessment of the participant and their symptoms, a one-week treatment protocol, and a two-week follow-up appointment.
Given the recent critical nature of the pandemic, the Hong Kong Government has introduced the "StayHomeSafe Scheme" under which close contacts living together with COVID-19 patients in the same household will undergo home quarantine. As such, preventing close contacts from contracting the COVID-19 virus and providing them with early treatments for possible symptoms has become a key issue in infection control. The SCM study aims to further enhance the efficacy of Chinese medicine in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
The recruitment of participants for the study starts today (16 March 2022). Persons who meet the following requirements are welcome to join:
- Aged 18 or above;
- Close contact who lives with a COVID-19 patient in the same household and is required to undergo home quarantine; and at the time of registration, the co-living COVID-19 patient has tested positive in the past four days;
- Have no COVID-19 symptoms (such as cough, fever, fatigue, etc.);
- No history of allergies to Chinese medicine;
- No acute or serious medical conditions, and the applicant should not be pregnant, breastfeeding, or about to conceive; and
- Understand Chinese (both verbal and written), and give informed consent.
Those who are interested in joining the study, please register online by scanning the following QR code with your mobile phone or clicking on the following link. Registration and participation in the study are free of charge.
