Anything goes, where treatment is concerned

Straits Times ^ | May 31 | By Grace Sung

[DeaconBenjamin]

With no cure found yet, hospitals across Asia are trying everything from controversial drugs to Chinese medicine

FROM antibiotics to traditional herbal remedies, doctors in Asia are using a cocktail of medicines and therapies to treat patients struck by the Sars virus.

Opinions differ as to the effectiveness of these measures.

But with a cure nowhere in sight, officials are trying everything to save lives.

Hong Kong Health Secretary Yeoh Eng Kiong said since little is known of the virus, the treatment is based on informed guesses.

'Hong Kong arrived at its treatment through empirical trial and error because there's no time to wait for clinical trials.'

Like Taiwan, it is using the controversial Ribavirin despite the serious side-effects associated with the anti-viral drug. It can cause deformity in foetuses or kidney damage.

Some researchers say the drug produces no results in Sars patients. But Dr Chang Shang-tsun, director of the Infection Prevention Department at the National Taiwan University Hospital, said Ribavirin is effective if used within 10 days of infection.

'If used after 10 days of being infected, patients would develop side-effects, including vomiting and skin rash after the first week of Ribavirin treatment,' he admitted.

Nevertheless, Ribavirin has its proponents.

One of them is Professor Yuen Kwok Yung of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Hong Kong.

He noted that 90 per cent of the first 138 Sars patients in Hong Kong showed improvement when given Ribavirin and high doses of steroids.

Dr Yeoh said: 'We are very open to any new treatment, but at the moment we do not have a choice, so it's either using that regimen or no treatment.'

The urgency in finding the best treatment has some opting for a fusion of Western and traditional methods.

A two-week trial was conducted on 21 patients in Hong Kong earlier this month using an integrated Chinese and Western approach. The Hospital Authority now endorses the treatment of Sars patients with Chinese medicine.

In China, officials believe traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is effective but say it has to be applied early with Western drugs to be useful.

Mr Shen Zhixiang, director of the International Cooperation Department at the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said: 'We are now systematically using TCM to treat Sars. In terms of prevention, TCM is used to ease coughs. TCM is used during every phase of Sars treatment from early signs to rehabilitation.'

Dr James Maguire of the World Health Organisation told The Straits Times: 'The expectation is that TCM helps to fortify a person's immunity and helps them recover quicker.' But he said more research was needed to determine its effectiveness.

WHO recommends that TCM be used only as a supplement. -- Compiled from reports by Mary Kwang in Hong Kong, David Hsieh in Beijing and Lawrence Chung in Taipei

[Dog Gone]

Nothing they've tried yet works. Either patients get better on their own, despite the treatment, or they die.

This is such a sudden disease that nobody has done any clinical trials. Heck, the cure might be two cans of Mountain Dew.

[DeaconBenjamin]

I can see the Jackie Chan PSAs now -- See the Dew, Feel the Dew, Do the Dew.