SARS Chlamydia Micro/macro management

[Guest guest]

April 9, 2003

 

Dear Listmembers,

 

Thanks Ken for your info on Mr. Hong Tao's 'break' into the Lancet . An additional information from the press conference that I inadvertantly left out ( due to lack of time to translate that segment from Chinese into English) in my last posting refers to a number of pharmaceuticals that the Mainland Chinese Government is planning to test for efficacy against SARS. They are all anti-micobial and anti-viral Western pharmaceutical drugs like Rifampicin, erythromycin hong mei su , etc. The title of the on-line article in which these info featured was " Chinese Medical Experts Discuss The Control and Scientific Storming of Key Issues Regarding Atypical Pneumonia " .

 

I have also read the Chinese language websites of the Hongkong Territorial Government's re: prevention and treatment of SARS during the past number of weeks and disovered that they also have a purely micromanagement approach vis-a-vis the SARS epidemic. The treatment mainly includes ribavirin, steriods and antibody blood transfusion.

 

Yesterday , there was a one hour panel discussion in the Australian Broadcasing Corporation " Radio National " morning program on SARS where Canadian and American experts were asked about treatment of the disease. They answered that they are mainly using antibiotics and anti-inflammatory durgs. When a caller inquired about the incongruency of the use of antibacterial drugs against a suppposed viral agent, the experts answered that they really do no have any scientfic proof that these drugs work vis-a-vis SARS . They are just using them in the hope that they will work. However, there was one positive issue that emerged in this radio panel discussion i.e. the ecological aspect of epidemics which continuues to affect humanity . And this is where macromanagement of the SARS epidemic comes in.

 

While the micromanagement of the SARS epidemic is a worthwhile endeavour ( am not downplaying it ) , I do believe that the CDC, World Health Organization, The Chinese Goverrnment, Hongkong Territorial Government have placed insufficient stress into the macromanagement of SARS. From the information that I am getting on-line, people in HK and southern China are left on their own to tap into their traditional medical and hygiene practices in dealing with the SARS epidemic. This is borne out by reports of people wearing surgical masks, fumigating their homes with vinergar, taking traditional herbal preparations etc. I still have to hear of any research institution and organization as well as government and international health agencies tapping into China's three thousand years collective experience in dealing with epidemics yi i.e. combatting pestilential Qi , perverse Qi and composite Qi. How these heteropathies xie Qi comes about is discussed in a Chinese medicine textbook which says:

 

" There are two situations from which the Œpestilential Qi¹ come about.

 

1. Special changes in climactic conditions. For example coldness and summer heat which are not in season , violent wind, excessive rain yin yu , protracted draught , floods lao and depression and vaporiation of mountain miasma Shan gang zhang Qi

 

2. Unhygienic ecological practices like the failure to immediately deal with

and bury dead human and animal matter as well as failure to manage rubbish which eventually decomposes and transform into Œpestilential Qi.¹

 

When these pestilential Qi is inhaled by humans they can cause diseases which eventually infects other people and thus lead to epidemics. like ŒBig head epidemic¹ toad epidemic¹. cholera, malalria, epidemic gastroenteritis, diphtheria, smallpox which are disease resulting from being affected by the epidemic and pestilential Qi. (page 87 Zhong Yi Xue Gai Lun Introductory Text on TCM 1958) "

 

 

 

Sincerely yoours,

Rey Tiquia

Phd Candidate

Dept of History and Philosophy of Science

The University of Melbourne