Traditional Chinese medicine being put to use against SARS virus

[Guest guest]

thought i would share this

 

12.05.2003 07:56:00 GMT

Traditional Chinese medicine being put to use against SARS virus

 

Shanghai. (Interfax-China) - Though there is as yet no effective vaccine or

antidote for the SARS virus, a Chinese traditional medicine formula has seen

good clinical responses from infected SARS patients, according to Chinese

authorities. The continuous use of a traditional Chinese medicine remedy in

Guangdong, the original area for the first reported SARS cases, has

succeeded in a much lower death rate when compared to that of Beijing and

Hong Kong.

 

The Guangdong Traditional Hospital has received a confirmed

112 SARS cases since January 2003, among which 105 have been cured and left

the hospital, and 7 patients have died. All SARS patients were treated by

Chinese traditional medicine techniques.

 

The leader of the Chinese team researching the use of Chinese traditional

medicine against SARS, professor Deng Tietao, with Guangdong Traditional

Hospital, gave an exclusive interview to Interfax from his

home in Guangdong Province.

 

In order to implement Guangdong's successful anti-SARS traditional Chinese

medicine formula nationwide, China's State Administration of Traditional

(SATCM) issued a circular to assign the Guangdong

Traditional Hospital to summarize the formula used, which

has recently been released to the public on the front page of the domestic

traditional Chinese medicine newspaper, Zhongguo Zhongyiyao Bao.

 

The official formula was written under the supervision of a group of

experts, led by professor Deng Tietao.

 

The traditional Chinese medicine remedy does not react to what kind of

microbe the SARS virus is, or what kind of genetic effect the virus

undertakes after entering a human body, it instead reacts directly to the

symptoms that occur during the period the human body is infected with the

virus, Deng told Interfax. The goal of traditional Chinese medicine remedy

is not to kill the virus but drive it away. That is why traditional Chinese

medicine can cure some severe illnesses, even it does not have a

microbiological make-up, he explained.

 

Hong Kong, which suffered a higher death rate in SARS cases before, has

begun to utilize traditional Chinese medicine. Representatives of the Hong

Kong Health Department visited Guangdong Traditional

Hospital several days ago, Deng disclosed, and two doctors from this

hospital have already been invited to Hong Kong to help treat SARS patients

there.

 

The expert group has divided the SARS illness into four phases, namely an

initial phase, a medium phase, a peak phase, and a recuperation phase. The

four phases have different symptoms, and patients in different phases should

be treated by different formulas. For example, patients in the initial phase

can take huo pu xia cen tang (soup of the leaf of wrinkled giant hyssop),

while patients in the recuperation phase should take xia shen tang

(adenophora root soup) or mai dong tang (dwarf lily turf tuber soup).

 

In addition to the traditional Chinese medicine formulas, according to the

different symptoms in the separate phases, intravenous injections of

compounds can be introduced, such as of yu xing cao zhen (cordate

honttuynia), dan shen zhen (salvia mitiorrhiza), deng zhan xi xin zhen

(fleabane), or shuang huang lian zhen (coptis chinensis franch). As to

weaker patients, 5 to 10 grams of American ginseng root can also be taken

per day.

 

Li, an official with the Guangdong Administration of Traditional Chinese

Medicine (GATCM), told Interfax that both China's Ministry of Health (MOH)

and the Hong Kong Health Department came to Guangzhou for a scientific

exchange about one month ago, regarding SARS treatment.

 

Traditional Chinese medicine remedies are carried out based on symptoms

relating to each individual case. While SARS patients regularly have

different clinical symptoms, such as different fever temperatures, and

different length of the four phases. So, the released formula is just a

general guide, instead of an all-purpose recipe for curing SARS, which could

mislead doctors, according to Li.

[Guest guest]

, " James Tang " wrote:

 

> Traditional Chinese medicine being put to use against SARS virus

Shanghai. (Interfax-China) - Though there is as yet no effective

vaccine or antidote for the SARS virus, a Chinese traditional

medicine formula has seen good clinical responses from infected SARS

patients, according to Chinese authorities. The continuous use of a

traditional Chinese medicine remedy in Guangdong, the original area

for the first reported SARS cases, has succeeded in a much lower

death rate when compared to that of Beijing and Hong Kong. >>>

 

 

James:

 

This is really excellent and important news. I hope these facts find

their way to the media. It's the sort of news that we should use to

our political advantage. Can you get any more details?

 

There has been speculation in a number of news sources that the

combination of steroids and antivirus medicines is what is killing

many of the SARS patients. And there has been speculation that the

immune system overreacts to the SARS condition---perhaps because it

does not outright kill the virus. So we can provide treatment with

CM in this area, too, which is more appropriate than WM.

 

It's a shame that the political circumstances kept CM back this

long. It may also spur more pharmaceutical research into the

antiviral properties of herbs.

 

 

Jim Ramholz