Efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine to prevent and treat COVID-19 household close contacts in Hong Kong: an open-label, randomized controlled trial

ObjectivesTo evaluate the efficacy and safety of CHM in the prevention of COVID-19 infection and treatment for COVID-19 related symptoms.DesignProspective open-label randomized controlled trial.SettingParticipants’ home in Hong Kong.ParticipantsParticipants who had household close contact with COVID-19-infected family members.InterventionsClose contacts were stratified into 4 groups (cohort A, B, C, D) based on symptoms and infection status and were randomized in 4:1 ratio to receive CHM granules (9g/sachet, two times daily) or blank control for 7 days with 2 weeks of follow-up.Main outcome measuresThe primary outcome measure was the rate of positive nucleic acid tests. Secondary outcomes were the proportion of developed COVID-19 related symptoms and adverse events during the whole 3-week study period. Subgroup analysis was used to evaluate demographic factors associated with positive infection rates.ResultsA total of 2163 contacts were enrolled and randomly assigned to the CHM group (1720 contacts) and blank control (443 contacts) group. During the 21 days, the rate of PCR-positive cases in cohort A was markedly lower in the CHM group (3.6%) compared to the control group (7.0%) (P=0.036). Overall, the rate of infection in the CHM group was significantly lower than that in the control group (10.69% vs. 6.03%; RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.39-0.82) after 7-day treatment. No serious adverse events were reported during the medication period.ConclusionThe preliminary findings indicate that CHM may be effective and safe in preventing COVID-19. Future double-blind, randomized controlled trials and long-term follow-up are needed to fully evaluate the efficacy of CHM in a larger contact population.Clinical trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT05269511