Thai traditional medicine goes mobile in fight against ‘long Covid’
Thai traditional medicine practitioners rolled out a mobile unit to treat Covid-19 cases on Friday, adding another weapon in the country’s battle against Omicron.
The Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine is also educating practitioners nationwide as to which Thai traditional herbs can be used to treat Covid-19, its director-general Dr Yongyot Thammavudhi said on Friday.
He was speaking at an event dubbed "Thai traditional medicine unites to fight the danger of Covid-19", which also covered ways to treat people suffering “long Covid”.
Dr Yongyot said his department had a two-pronged strategy for the battle against Thailand’s new wave of Covid-19, driven by the Omicron variant.
First, it is standardising traditional-medical care nationwide by transferring knowledge of practices and herbal treatments for Covid-19 and its long-term effects to practitioners in the public and private sphere.
Second, it is launching a mobile Thai traditional medical unit to treat patients in metropolitan Bangkok.
The department urged the public to get in touch with community leaders to learn more about how the mobile unit will operate.
The Public Health Ministry is working with the department and other Thai traditional medicine partners to ensure that all Covid-19 sufferers had access to high-quality traditional medicine, said Deputy Minister Satit Pitutecha.
"This is another way to ensure health safety and assist the country in overcoming the national crisis," he added.
The Cabinet last year approved use of the herb fah talai jone (green chiretta or Andrographis paniculate) to treat asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 after it performed well in studies.
