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COVER_223_HWG_Project Report of Integrative Medicine (IM) and COVID-19 Care

Proceedings

July 2023

Project Report of Integrative Medicine (IM) and COVID-19 Care

Published Under

SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE), Health Working Group (HWG)

Accessed

1540

Pages

66

Till March 2023, over 758 million people worldwide have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. While conventional medicine has interventions to prevent and manage symptoms associated with COVID-19 including vaccines, antibodies and antiviral medications, many patients still experienced poor outcomes. For those who survive, many suffer from the long-term ramifications of COVID-19 infection termed post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), or long COVID. Using complementary and alternative approaches delivered by Integrative Medicine (IM) such as nutrition, dietary supplementation, herbal medicine, acupuncture/acupressure, exercise, and stress resilience therapy may offer alternative, or additive, or complementary benefit alongside conventional interventions for preventing or managing COVID-19 symptoms and PASC. This project report summarizes efforts from a first-of-its-kind, three-part project proposed and led by the US and supported by three co-sponsoring APEC economies (Chinese Taipei, Indonesia and Thailand) focused on IM for COVID-19 care: 1) A survey focused on science-based IM for COVID-19 care, 2) A Workshop to host various APEC economies to share and discuss efforts around the adoption and implementation of IM approaches for COVID-19 care, and 3) The development of Recommendations and Guidelines of IM for COVID-19 care.