Two herbalist doctors from the Chinese mainland attended the meeting and introduced their experience of herbal treatment as supporting cure for the disease.

The herb doctors, who are from hospitals of neighboring Guangdong Province, have joined cure practice on SARS and obtained special experience in improving treatment via traditional Chinese medicine.

Officials for the Authority said mainland herbalists' coming to Hong Kong is a "medical breakthrough," which will enhance the cooperation in containing the virus.

Director of the Authority Ko Wing-man said after the meeting that Hong Kong and mainland doctors will firstly review together the function and side-effect of the combined treatment, which will then be put into clinical use with the improvement of the patients and their doctors in charge.

In light of the reports of effective treatment of herbal medicines, there are suggestions that Hong Kong should borrow mainland experiences of using herbal medicines. The Hospital Authority decided last week to hand out instant Chinese medicine crystal powder to the public hospitals' front-line medical staff to enable them to guard against the SARS virus.

Linlin, a senior doctor of traditional Chinese medicine from Guangdong province, said more works should be done to find effective methods combining herb medicine with western treatment.

"According to our experience in Guangdong, Chinese medicine has its advantages in the treatment for SARS," she said.

Leung Ping-chung, professor of a Hong Kong university and expert on Chinese medicine who supports the selective use of Chinese medicine, said cooperation of Hong Kong, mainland medical professionals will accelerate the research on treatment.

"I believe the creative practice will give a good example for combination of Chinese and western medicine and open the door wider for medical cooperation in the future," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 5, 2003)