Experts from the World Health Organization said here Monday that
the effect of traditional Chinese herbal medicine on the treatment
of atypical pneumonia needs their further attention and study.
After a discussion with doctors from the Guangdong Provincial
Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, James Maguire from the
WHO medical team said patients in the hospital have more rapidly
recovered from the disease.
Maguire said they need to further study and keep a close watch with
this information about the effect of Chinese medicine on atypical
pneumonia treatment.
The hospital has received 112 atypical pneumonia patients during
the past two months. To date, those already cured spent an average
of seven days to bring down their fever caused by the disease and
left the hospital after 18 days.
The hospital has used traditional Chinese medicine to help treat
patients while it has also resorted to Western medicine like many
other hospitals.
Compared with ordinary pneumonia, the disease can be divided into
the early, middle, climax and late phases, said Lin Lin, a director
of the hospital's respiratory department, adding that they have
used different Chinese medicines on patients according to their
different phases.
"The therapy recommended by the Guangdong Provincial Health Bureau
mainly focuses on Western medicine," Lin said. "But patients have
alleviated their syndromes and shortened their time in hospital
after we used Chinese medicine to help treat the disease."
To
date, the mystery disease has struck more than 1,200 people on the
Chinese mainland, of whom 51 have died.
(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2003)
