DH and COSH join hands to promote acupuncture and moxibustion for smoking cessation in celebration of 75th anniversary of founding of People's Republic of China (with photos)

To mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Department of Health (DH) and the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health jointly organised the Inheritance and Innovation of the Chinese Medicine Cultural Treasure – the Launch Ceremony of the Clinical Guideline of Acupuncture and Moxibustion for Smoking Cessation (Hong Kong Edition) (Guideline) today (September 20). The promulgation of the Guideline is to aim at further enabling Chinese medicine practitioners to widely adopt acupuncture and moxibustion to help patients quit smoking.

Basing on service and research data over the years as well as the latest scientific evidence, the Guideline is the joint effort of the DH, the Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences and Pok Oi Hospital. It covers acupuncture treatment protocols that are tailored to suit local practices and clinical tools for smoking cessation assessments and brief counseling. The Guideline will assist Chinese medicine practitioners in mastering the theoretical basis of smoking cessation by acupuncture and enable them to provide effective smoking cessation support and treatment in their daily practice to help their patients overcome tobacco addiction.

The launching ceremony was officiated by the Vice Commissioner of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM), Dr Wang Zhiyong. Dr Wang congratulated the launch of the Guideline, and commended the DH for its positive contribution to promoting tobacco control policies and implementing relevant measures. Also speaking at the ceremony, the Director of Health, Dr Ronald Lam, expressed his gratitude to the NATCM for their enduring support of the DH's tobacco control endeavors, and called on the Chinese medicine community to actively promote the wide application of the Guideline.

With the support of the NATCM, the DH started to launch a smoking cessation service programme using Chinese medicine in Hong Kong in 2010. The programme aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of community-based smoking cessation services using Chinese medicine based on clinical evidence. The smoking cessation service using acupuncture and moxibustion, a collaboration between the DH and Pok Oi Hospital, has served over 17 000 smokers since its launch in 2010 and has achieved a quit rate comparable to pharmaceutical treatments.