Treating SARS may be as simple as…a bowl of Chinese herbal soup:
Hong Kong (dpa) – Doctors believe Chinese herbal soup may be as effective in treating SARS as western anti-viral medicines, a news report said Wednesday.
Patients on mainland China were served with “qing fei jiy du tang” – which translates as soup for clearing the lungs – and showed better recovery rates than people in Hong Kong.
The SARS mortality rate in mainland China was 7 per cent, 10 per cent less than in Hong Kong where patients were treated with the drugs ribavirin and interferon.
University of Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung, quoted in the South China Morning Post, said the soup had been analysed and found to contain the chemical compound baicalin which is active against the SARS virus.
He said that although results were preliminary, the soup could offer a cheap alternative treatment in places where western drugs could not be afforded.
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