新型ウイルスに効く？伝統薬、中国で人気沸騰　効果に疑問の声も

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】中国で、スイカズラなどの植物を成分とする液状の伝統薬「双黄連」が新型コロナウイルスの治療に効果があると科学者らが明らかにしたことを受け、人々がこの薬を求めて薬局に殺到している。ただ、薬の効力を疑問視する声も上がっている。（写真は資料写真）
　中国国内では、重症急性呼吸器症候群（ＳＡＲＳ）のウイルスに類似する新型コロナウイルスに感染し、死亡した人の数が増加し続けている。
　双黄連の人気のきっかけは、強い影響力を持つ国営新華社通信による１月３１日の報道だった。新華社は、同国の権威ある研究機関、中国科学院が、双黄連の服用により新型コロナウイルスを「抑制できる」ことを発見したと伝えた。
　当局は市民に対し感染拡大防止のため人が集まる場所には行かないよう呼び掛けているが、インターネット上に投稿された映像には、双黄連を買い求めているとされる人々が夜間にマスクをして薬局の外に並ぶ様子が捉えられている。
　オンラインストアや実店舗では双黄連の売り切れが続出したが、薬の有効性については中国版ツイッター「微博（ウェイボー）」で賛否が分かれた。
　騒ぎを受けて国営メディアは１日、より慎重な報道姿勢に転換した。新型コロナウイルス封じ込め対策を率いる科学者の一人は中国中央テレビ局とのインタビューで、双黄連の副作用について警告。共産党機関紙の人民日報は、識者の見解として、専門家と相談せずに伝統薬を服用しないよう呼び掛けた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/02/04-12:22）

A claim by Chinese scientists that a liquid made with honeysuckle and flowering plants could help fight the deadly coronavirus has sparked frenzied buying of the traditional medicine, but doubts quickly emerged.
As the death toll from the SARS-like pathogen sweeping the country continues to rise, shoppers have swamped pharmacies in search of Shuanghuanglian.
The rush came after influential state media outlet Xinhua reported Friday that the esteemed Chinese Academy of Sciences had found the concoction can inhibit the virus.
Videos shared online showed long lines of people in surgical masks lining up at night outside drug stores, purportedly in hope of snapping up the product, despite official advice that people avoid public gatherings to prevent infection.
It quickly sold out both online and at brick-and-mortar stores, but responses to the remedy's supposed efficacy have ranged from enthusiasm to scepticism on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.
And state media sounded a more cautionary note on Saturday, with broadcaster CCTV publishing an interview with Zhang Boli, one of the researchers leading outbreak containment efforts, who warned of potential side effects from the medicine.
The People's Daily newspaper, a government mouthpiece, said experts advised against taking traditional remedies without professional guidance.
But the claim comes as Beijing looks to incorporate traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) into its nationwide fight against the virus, which has killed more than 300 people and infected over 14,000 in the country. On Sunday the Philippines reported the first death outside of China.
Researchers at the state-run academy, a top government think tank, are also studying the potential use of a plant commonly known as Japanese knotweed to alleviate symptoms.
The National Health Commission on Tuesday said TCM practitioners were among nearly 6,000 reinforcement medical personnel being sent to Wuhan in Hubei province, ground zero of the outbreak.
- 'No difference' -
The strategy has reignited fierce and long-running debate about the efficacy of TCM, which has a history going back 2,400 years and remains popular in modern-day China.
Marc Freard, a member of the Chinese Medicine Academic Council of France, told AFP he believed traditional formulations could be used to treat people with symptoms ranging from fever to thick phlegm.
But he warned that many remedies on the market were of questionable quality and admitted that TCM lacks scientific standards of efficacy because it relied on individualised treatment.
Traditional medicines were widely used in China in conjunction with Western methods during the 2003 epidemic of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed 774 people worldwide.
But a 2012 study in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews found combining Chinese and Western medicines made no difference in battling the disease.
- Nationalism -
The Chinese government has increasingly promoted traditional medicine abroad in recent years, often with nationalistic undertones.
Beijing issued its first white paper on TCM in 2016, laying out plans to build medicine centres and dispatch practitioners to developing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.
President Xi Jinping has called TCM a treasure of Chinese civilisation and said at a meeting in October that it should be given as much weight as other treatments.
China is working hard to spread the message internationally about its traditional culture, and medicine is a part of this, Freard said.
In 2019 the World Health Organization (WHO) even added Chinese medicine to its International Classification of Diseases -- a reference document for medical trends and global health statistics -- after years of campaigning by Beijing.
But the move was slammed by members of the scientific community, with the European Academies' Science Advisory Council calling the decision a major problem due to the lack of evidence-based practice.
The WHO did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.
Fang Shimin, a prominent writer in China known for his campaigns against academic fraud, told AFP he believes the government's promotion of traditional medicine panders to nationalism and has nothing to do with science.
It is an enormous industry in China worth more than $130 billion in 2016 -- a third of the country's entire medical industry -- according to state news agency Xinhua.