Now, doctors at Shanghai Shuguang Hospital believe they have found a variation of traditional Chinese medicine that is successful in treating hepatitis B and C, which attack the liver and can cause liver cancer, liver failure and death.

Hepatitis C is the more dangerous of the two.

If the herbal medicine passes a yearlong assessment by the Municipal Health Bureau and the city Commission of Science and Technology that begins in August, it will go on sale, said Chen Jianjie, director of Shuguang's hepatitis department who headed a team of 14 doctors that conducted the research.

The medicine, Chen said, regulates the endocrine system. It helps the production of normal cells and fights virus-infected cells, Chen said.

The ingredients of the medicine include root of red-rooted salvia, seed of hollyhock and the ginseng-like dangshen.

Chen said his team found the formula for the new medicine in 1986, and since then has been monitoring its use on a trial basis. "Of the 30,000 patients who have tried this medicine, 30 percent have recovered."

During the first six months of the assessment, 600 patients with hepatitis B and C from Changhai and Zhongshan hospitals will be treated. They will be divided into two groups to take the new medicine and a commonly used Western drug, Interferon. The final six months will be for follow-up visits.

"Our new medicine is superior because it is inexpensive, has no side effects and functions like the Western drug," Chen said.

There are 120 million carriers of various types of hepatitis in China, Chen added. In Shanghai, 10 percent of the population of 13 million have hepatitis B; 0.3 percent have the C virus, Chen said.

Statistics from both home and abroad show that the cure rate for Interferon is only 30 percent, while the cost is at least 10,000 yuan for six months of treatment, Chen said.

Treatment with the new medicine would cost about 1,080 yuan for the same period, he added.

Plus, Chen said, the Western drug has side effects - fever, hair loss and muscle aches.

(Eastday.com 12/28/2000)