Qi Wensheng, director of the Emergency Department of Guang'an Gate Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said at the press conference of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council held on the 3rd that cough is a protective reflex of the body and does not cause pneumonia itself.

At the meeting, a reporter asked: Many patients will have cough symptoms in the process of recovery, and many people are also worried about whether this repeated and persistent cough will become pneumonia. What should I do to treat this cough? How to choose Chinese medicine?

Qi Wensheng responded that cough is a protective reflex of the body, mainly to clean up foreign bodies and secretions in the respiratory tract. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, COVID-19 is mainly caused by two factors in the late stage, namely, residual pathogens and injury of vital energy. For example, the phlegm and heat are not clear, the lung yin is injured, the function of the lung is out of order, and the cough is left. Cough like this often has little sputum, white color, sticky texture, or accompanied by symptoms of pharyngeal itching. Therefore, clinical treatment should also start from these two perspectives. On the one hand, strengthening the body is to nourish yin and moisten the lung, and on the other hand, it is to dispel pathogenic factors, clear heat and dissipate phlegm. Some Chinese patent medicines have good effects, such as Jizhi Syrup, Yangyin Qingfei Pill, Xingbei Zhike Granules. These Chinese patent medicines have good therapeutic effects.

"Just now, the reporter also asked whether the cough will cause pneumonia if it lasts for a long time or worsens. This can clearly say that the cough itself will not cause pneumonia. If it is a pneumonia cough, there will be continuous fever, shortness of breath, a large amount of yellow sticky sputum, and a serious decline in appetite. If there is a pneumonia cough, you should go to the hospital in time to avoid delaying the disease," Qi Wensheng said.

Qi Wensheng pointed out that there is another situation. If there are old people and children in the family, he can't explain clearly and has a cough. It depends on his mental state. If the old people are depressed, the appetite is decreased, the children have shortness of breath and even cyanosis of lips, these are not very good conditions. Send them to a doctor in time.