Official statistics from Taiwan show that the mortality rate of SARS in the region was relatively high, said Zhong. He suggested medical staff in Taiwan improve their treatment of seriously-infected SARS patients.

Zhong Nanshan is an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Respiratory Disease Research Institute of No.1 Hospital affiliated with Guangzhou Medical Science College.

Zhong's institute has developed a treatment system to save seriously-infected SARS patients which has been used worldwide.

Zhong suggested use of cortical hormone at the right time, depending on the state of the disease. Severe acute respiratory syndrome is a disease of sthenic immunologic function. The first week was usually when the virus replicated and it was not necessary to use cortical hormone until the disease deteriorated quickly and the shadow in the lung grew rapidly, said Zhong.

Zhong also advised Taiwan medical staff to use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) immediately when the patient had hypoxemia symptoms. This might help to reduce the use of cortical hormone and alleviate hypoxemia symptoms, said Zhong.

Traditional Chinese medicine could be used in the early stages for supporting treatment.

The overall mortality rate of SARS in Guangdong is 3.77 percent, the lowest among the hard-hit regions in the world. Zhong's institute treated over 100 severely-infected SARS patients in Guangdong with a mortality rate of 6 percent, much lower than that predicted by the World Health Organization.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2003)