Chinese scientists have announced that a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that has proved effective against AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is set to go on the market after up to 20 years of development and trials.

The medicine, called compound SH was developed by researchers from the Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) in Southwest China's Yunnan Province in co-operation with the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand.

The compound SH has completed three stages of clinical trials in Thailand so far, with exciting results, according to Luo Shide, the chief scientist researching the drug.

The medicine is now pending review and approval from China's State Food and Drug Administration, Luo said.

"If the review goes smoothly, we expect to see the medicine on the market by early next year," he said.

The breakthrough was made public recently through a news briefing held in Kunming.

Since 1985, Luo and his colleagues began looking into the vast pool of Chinese herbal medicines for AIDS treatment possibilities.

After sifting through more than 1,000 plants for 13 years, they found 150 herbs with medicinal properties that appeared active in fighting HIV, the virus thought responsible for causing AIDS. From there, they selected the bark from white mulberry roots and four other Chinese plants as basic elements of their compound drug.

By combining traditional medicines and modern pharmacology, Luo developed the compound SH out of the herbs, which had already been shown as being able to improve human immune systems.

The initial success of the research received considerable attention in 2000 from the government of Thailand, a country that has a large number of AIDS patients.

With support from Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Korn Dabbaransi, an agreement was signed to allow Thai medical authorities to jointly conduct clinical trials on the SH compound in Thailand.

The first two experiments there were completed by 2001, with the compound tested on 28 patients in a hospital in the city of Ban Chiang Mai.

Luo said nine of the patients showed obvious reductions in viral concentrations, while 16 others showed no increases after three months of treatment. A third clinical trial was completed in Thailand this June.

The third-stage experiment showed increased effects especially on patients within six years after having contracted the AIDS virus, Luo said.

The local media reports carried on Thailand Ministry of Public Health's website quoted Dr Chawalit Santikitrungruang, adviser to the Medical services Department, as saying that "Chinese herbs have four qualities: They relieve symptoms, get rid of toxicity, deal with the cause of illness and increase immunity."

The medicine has already been approved by the Thai medical authorities for market release, according to Luo.

Officials there believe the experiments have proved the compound is not only safe and effective, but has few of the side-effects patients display when taking similar Western medications.

And, significantly, its price is about one tenth of that of the Western drugs - a dramatic difference, considering the nations - such as South Africa - where AIDS patients routinely die for lack of medicine because there is no money available to pay for it.

The new drug offers hope, Luo said, and could play an important role in the developing world.

Luo is not the only Chinese researcher who has eyed traditional Chinese medicines as an AIDS treatment.

Guang Chongfen, director of immunology at the China Academy of TCM in Beijing, has also been developing TCM-based treatments for AIDS for years.

Guang's team has been conducting clinical trials in Tanzania since 1989. In the most complete experiments conducted there so far, he said 14 of 29 AIDS patients responded positively to treatment with Zhongyan Erhao, a compound of eight different traditional Chinese medicines, including ginseng.

"There is no vaccine for AIDS so far being developed," Professor Guang said of that round of experiments two years ago. "And no compound can cure it yet, but Chinese medicines can inhibit the growth of the virus and improve patients' immunity. Although TCM is slower to work than Western medicine, it offers lasting results, with little side-effects or resistance and, above all, it is inexpensive."

The biggest challenges facing both Luo and Guang, however, are economic.

"There is so much discrimination in society towards AIDS sufferers that people are afraid to admit they have the disease," said Guang.

"That means exactly how many people have AIDS in China remains unclear, and this influences how much funding the government gives to research programmes."

According to the Ministry of Public Health, China has about one million HIV carriers, scattered nationwide.

The number is climbing, however, and even the Ministry of Public Health officials acknowledge the actual number of carriers is larger and the figure could possibly exceed 10 million by the year 2010 if no effective and timely measures are taken.

Zeng Yi, a renowned AIDS expert with the Ministry of Health, warned at an AIDS symposium recently that both the government and the public have underestimated the possibility that AIDS could develop into epidemic proportions in the next decade.

Society as a whole is not fully aware of the importance and urgency of AIDS prevention and control, and a lot needs to be done in terms of policy-making, publicity and scientific research, he acknowledges.

Both Luo and Guang admit their drugs, while effective in combating AIDS and alleviating its syndromes, may not be the final answer to solving the AIDS crisis.

Rather, they believe, combined therapy is the likely ultimate answer.

Luo said his drugs, when combined with Western medicine, such as the AZT, have shown double the effectiveness for treating AIDS patients.

"It will take time, but the best way is to combine the advantages of both Western and traditional Chinese medicine," says Guang. "Whether you experiment on people or monkeys, if a medicine has a 50 per cent success rate, then it has a future and trials must continue."

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