Siaran Akhbar

GERAKAN Held An Online Engagement Session On Malaysia Chinese Medicine Yesterday

Ogo 25, 2021

GERAKAN held an online engagement session on Malaysia Chinese medicine yesterday. Four guests were invited to the meeting, which include The President of Chinese Physicians Medicine Dealers Associations Malaysia, Mr Boon Yip Heng, the President of Federation of Chinese Physicians & Acupuncturists Association of Malaysia (FCPAAM), Dr Ng Po Kok and the President and Vice President of Malaysian Chinese Medical Association (MCMA), Dr. Yong Wee Seong and Dr. Leong Yee Piau.

GERAKAN’s National President Datuk Dr. Dominic Lau Hoe Chai mentioned in the session that traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been recognized by many Malaysians regardless of race or religion. He believes that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can play an significant role in combating Covid-19 and to be recognized as one of the treatment options by Malaysia Government.

Dr. Yong Wee Seong pointed out that TCM is positioned as an auxiliary treatment to help patients with rehabilitation.

“China for instance, had recently tried to control the spread of the Delta variant in Nanjing by treating patients with a combination of traditional Chinese and western medicine. This is something we can learn from.”

“While we learn from the experiences of China through their clinical data of traditional Chinese medicine treatments, there is a need for our local Chinese traditional medicine community to collaborate with local medical institutions to come up with a holistic and localized treatment plan in order to help alleviate the symptoms of COVID-19 patients in Malaysia.”

In addition, Dr. Ng Po Kok mentioned that now TCM in Malaysia can only be promoted privately. Although the status of TCM is recognized by the Ministry of Health under the Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) Act 2016 (Act 775), paradoxically, TCM is not accepted by our government as one of the treatment options for COVID-19, which is quite disappointing.

“Traditional Chinese medicine proves their value with their rich history spanning thousands of years. The Malaysian government can explore feasible treatment plans from the perspective of Traditional Chinese medicine, and more clinical trials can be conducted to verify the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine since there are many patients.”

He points out that Malaysia differs from China in the sense that Malaysia is now pursuing a ‘living with COVID’ policy as opposed to China’s ‘No Covid Policy’. There is then the need to quickly provide treatment to category 1 and 2 patients to curb infections.

Besides that, Mr Boon Yip Heng said that vaccines are the Western way to prevent COVID-19 whereas Zhen Qi (真气) is a concept in TCM to aid us in COVID-19 prevention.

“Our daily routine plays a major role in maintaining our health and indirectly, our immune system, which can be represented by Zhen Qi in TDM. Post-vaccine augmentation by TCM is definitely possible as it is also recognized by TCM experts in China. There are no risks associated with such augmentations.”

Although TCM is not recognized as a treatment for COVID-19 in Malaysia, many people still accept TCM as a treatment and precaution for early diagnosis.

Finally, he said patients with severe symptoms had also sought treatment from TCM. According to his knowledge, some ICU patients will continue to seek TCM treatment and able to be recovered from the ICU ward.

At the end of the session, Dr. Dominic Lau Hoe Chai expressed the hope with the cooperation of the three parties, Chinese medicine can play a more important role in the fight against the epidemic in Malaysia.

“Traditional Chinese Medicine can augment Malaysia’s healthcare system to fight against COVID-19 and work towards their goal to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible.”

Datuk Dr. Dominic Lau Hoe Chai
National President
Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia