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Herbal remedy for A(H1N1) flu in China
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The herbal treatment is a mixture of four locally-used medicinal herbs: Jin yin hua (lonicera japonica), Da qing ye (Isatis indigodica), Bo he (Mentha haplocalyx) and Sheng gan cao (Glycyrrhiza glabra).
Ananth Krishnan
Chinese doctors say they have found a herbal remedy for preventing and treating the A(H1N1) Influenza which is both more cost-effective and better resistant to the virus than the drug Tamiflu.
Hospitals in Beijing have in the last month begun treating A(H1N1)-infected patients with this herbal remedy instead of the World Health Organisation-recommended Tamiflu, which is also being used to treat A(H1N1) in India. Doctors in two Beijing hospitals told The Hindu the results have so far been successful.
At Ditan hospital, where most of Beijing’s patients are being treated, doctors have treated 117 out of 297 admitted patients with the herbal remedy, and 88 of them have been cured. The others are undergoing treatment.
There have so far been 1,668 reported cases of A(H1N1) flu in China, though no deaths have been reported. The government’s Ministry of Public Health has expressed concern that as the winter flu season approaches, the chances of a serious outbreak are high. With some concern about Tamiflu’s decreasing resistance to the virus and fears regarding the drug’s side-effects, the government appears to have given full-backing to promoting a herbal treatment.
Meanwhile, two Chinese pharmaceutical companies this week have begun two month-long clinical trials for a vaccine to the infection.
In China, treatment and prevention of infections with herbal remedies as opposed to drugs — the practice is known as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) — is common, and the cost-effectiveness of herbal cures has seen a popular resurgence in TCM in recent years.
TCM, mainly known overseas for its acupuncture therapies, is regarded as mainstream medicine in China, but not in the West.
The government has now sanctioned hospitals to launch TCM-based treatments for A(H1N1) on a large scale, Tu Zhitao, dean of the research and education department at the Beijing Administration of TCM told The Hindu. “We have found that Tamiflu is not sufficient, and it also weakens the body and has adverse affects on body tolerance,” said Mr. Tu.
“This treatment is a better alternative, and we have begun to promote this treatment among the public.”
Mr. Tu said the essential difference was that while the TCM remedy works to build up the body’s resistance in a holistic way, the Tamiflu drug focuses on attacking the infection.
The herbal treatment is a mixture of four locally-used medicinal herbs: Jin yin hua (lonicera japonica), Da qing ye (Isatis indigodica), Bo he (Mentha haplocalyx) and Sheng gan cao (Glycyrrhiza glabra). Doctors in Beijing first began using the remedy on May 15, treating patients with a combination of the herbal remedy and Tamiflu.
After successful trials, doctors have since June 15 begun prescribing only the herbal treatment. Ninety per cent of all A(H1N1) flu patients in China have been treated with a combination of the two treatments. Wang Yuguang, head of the Centre of Integrated Chinese and Western medicine at Ditan Hospital, said the treatment time for the herbal remedy was comparable with that of Tamiflu treatments. The big difference, he said, was the cost of the two treatments. The TCM remedy only costs between 10 and 13 Yuan (between Rs. 70 and Rs. 91) per day, while Tamiflu costs 56 Yuan (Rs. 392).
Mr. Wang said the herbal treatment was now undergoing clinical trials “to show concrete evidence that the treatment is scientific.”
He said the government had invested 10 million Yuan in conducting a comparative study of herbal and Tamiflu treatments.
Mao Yue, president of the Ditan Hospital, said there was a “serious possibility” of a large-scale outbreak of the flu in the autumn and winter of this year, and that the government has already begun procuring enough herbs to treat a possible 2 million patients.
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