Hong Kong had modified their treatments to Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) and adopted more effective protocols developed on
the basis of people's new knowledge about the disease, an official
said on Saturday.
Experience and studies had found that the initial procedure of
giving patients large doses of Ribavirin and steroids early in the
cycle could be modified, said Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong, Hong Kong's
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, at a press conference.
Yeoh said this adjustment of the previous treatment, where
Ribavirin and steroids were given together very early in the cycle,
was being made in the light of new findings that had arisen during
the SARS epidemic.
He
described a particular facet of research or treatment that helped
the public understand how SARS affects the body and which
treatments were most effective.
Yeoh said it had been recently established through research done in
Hong Kong that SARS passed through three phases, each lasting about
a week. This new knowledge is enabling our specialist clinicians to
adjust our current treatment with different medicines to correspond
better to the phases of illness.
(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2003)