Chinese herbs do not decrease SARS mortality

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Adding Chinese herbs to conventional therapy improves the symptoms of SARS but does not cut the death rate.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a relatively new infectious disease marked by high fever, breathing difficulties, and shortness of breath. It was first reported in 2003 and 774 people have died from it out of over 8,000 cases. Currently there is no vaccine available.

The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization which evaluates medical research, now reports a study on the role of Chinese herbs in SARS treatment. The reviewers, led by doctors at West China Hospital in Sichuan, looked at 12 trials covering 654 patients with SARS. They were treated with either a single herb or various combinations of 12 Chinese herbs. These were taken together with conventional therapies such as oxygen, antibiotics, steroids or antivirals. Some patients received only the conventional therapy.

In some patients treated with herbs, fever, cough and breathing problems lasted a shorter time and there was less inflammation in the lungs. But the herbs did not decrease mortality from the disease. More investigation of the role of Chinese herbs in SARS is merited because it looks as if they could play a useful role.

Source
The Cochrane Library January 2006

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