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| Chinese medicine proves effective SARS treatment |
| CCTV.COM 2003-06-10 09:06:17 |
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Over the past few months, doctors have come to believe that a combination of Chinese traditional medicine with Western medical treatment is effective in assisting the recovery of SARS patients, and especially in reducing the symptoms. Now their belief has been backed up by a comparative study which looked at over 500 cases from 11 hospitals in Beijing.
The research results show combined treatments resulted in patients suffering fewer days of major SARS symptoms. Patients treated in this way recovered from respiratory distress and dry cough two days sooner than those who received only Western medicine, and one day earlier from lethargy and shortness of breath. Within two weeks, the body temperature of patients receiving combined treatment showed a steady decline to normal, while the group on only Western medicine experienced a fluctuation in temperature on the sixth and seventh days.
Statistics also show that adding traditional medicine to Western treatment did away with the need for massive use of hormones and thus avoided the ensuing side effects.
Chinese medicine has long been used in chronic diseases but lacks a quantitative measurement in its effects. But this time in curing SARS, Chinese medical researchers have applied more precise assessment methods.
Liu Baoyan, vice president of China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said, “We have used symptoms, mortality rates, complication occurrence, hormone dosage, and x－ray results as our assessment norm. We have now collected and studied 1.5 million items of data, 2,000 chest x－ray results and 100 surveys from SARS doctors.”
The research is still continuing. A research paper with complete statistics will be completed by the end of this month and provide a more thorough and comprehensive report on the effects of Chinese medicine in the treatment of SARS.
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Editor: Yang Feiyang CCTV.com
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