Children and their parents wait at an outpatient area at a children hospital in Beijing on Nov. 23.Photographer: JADE GAO/AFP

By Phoebe Sedgman

For thousands of years, Chinese people have sought out bitter herbal concoctions to help them get over a variety of illnesses.

And while the majority of Chinese seek care from western medicine these days, many still turn to traditional remedies from time to time in hope of a cure.

At a typical traditional Chinese medicine appointment, a doctor examines things like a patient’s pulse or the appearance of their tongue to figure out how their inner balance of yin and yang has been disrupted. They’ll prescribe a mix of herbs to be brewed and consumed each day to restore health. At many hospitals, it’s common to see TCM prescribed alongside acetaminophen, cough syrups and nasal decongestants for treating a cold.

China’s health-care practices are once again under the spotlight amid a surge in respiratory illnesses, particularly a common bacteria known as mycoplasma pneumoniae, that’s hitting kids hard. Hospital waiting rooms have been overwhelmed with anxious parents who have had to wait hours to see a doctor.

With colder weather setting in, the percentage of patients displaying flu-like symptoms at hospitals monitored by China’s CDC is the highest in a decade, local media outlet Jiemian reported, citing data from the Chinese National Influenza Center. Authorities have added more staff, extended outpatient hours and empower local clinics to take on more patients to handle to surge in cases.

The scenes have revived memories of Covid, and health officials have taken a leaf out of their coronavirus playbook: encouraging people to turn to TCM.

At a National Health Commission briefing over the weekend, four of the five speakers were TCM specialists and they talked about the variety of ways they thought traditional practices could help quell the wave of illnesses.

One suggested back scraping and cupping therapy to clear the body of ‘heat’ and help with coughs and sore throats. Another said that TCM might be particularly useful in treating mycoplasma pneumoniae infections, given the bacteria’s high resistance to some common antibiotics.

The problem, of course, is that studies of TCM’s health claims tend to yield mixed results. It’s one thing to have a teaspoon of honey in your tea to help alleviate a sore throat; it’s another to rely on ginger to beat an acute infection of the lungs. And, just like pharmaceutical drugs, it can be dangerous to ingest natural medicines without appropriate medical supervision.

For many Chinese though, TCM will figure prominently in their lives. And the traditional remedies are expected to be rolled out far and wide in coming months, when colds, influenza, and all sorts of other illnesses tend to circulate freely. — Phoebe Sedgman