China: Traditional medicine for swine flu

BEIJING, July 2 (UPI) -- Beijing's municipal health department says some influenza A H1N1 patients have been treated using traditional Chinese medicine.

The Beijing Health Bureau said as of Thursday, eight of 17 flu patients handpicked to receive the treatment using 5,000-year-old traditional Chinese medicine were fully recovered, China Daily reported.

The non-Tamiflu medication has shown great promise for the remaining nine recovering patients, officials of the Beijing Health Bureau said.

The Ministry of Health said nearly 90 percent of the influenza A H1N1 patients in China have been treated with a combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine.

There were 1,518 laboratory-confirmed cases H1N1, also called swine flu, and no deaths reported to the World Health Organization by Chinese officials, statistics posted on the WHO Web site indicated.