LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Recent clinical trials in Beijing show traditional Chinese medicine is effective in preventing and curing the A/H1N1 virus, commonly known as "swine flu," according to a report Thursday in Chinese state media.
The report cited the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau as saying traditional cures were validated by five months of research, prompting the city to reserve 2 million doses of the unspecified treatment.
"The Beijing municipal government has invested 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) to test the effectiveness and safety of [traditional Chinese medicine] to treat A/H1N1 flu since May," the report quoted the city’s chief of traditional medicine Zhao Jing as saying.
Zhao said that as of Sept. 1, a total 326 of 845 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 in Beijing had been cured with traditional treatments, adding that such cures proved "very effective" in combination with Western medicine.
The report also quoted Wang Yuguang, a senior expert with Beijing Ditan Hospital, as saying: "Clinical tests have showed that [traditional medicine] doses help reduce symptoms of fever, sore throat and cough. … No side effects and adverse reactions have been reported."
