China promotes TCM in HIV treatment

[Photo: from VCG]

Health experts in China are researching an effective combination of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine.

The use of TCM in treating HIV carriers and AIDS patients can add extra medical value while also doing some personal good for patients, said Wang Jian, vice director of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Center for AIDS Prevention and Treatment at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.

According to the interview to Wang Jian by Global Times, western medicine is to cure certain symptoms, which focuses on anti-virus, while TCM is to cure the person who has the illness. TCM can strengthen a patient's immune system to counter the virus. It can protect the patients' internal organs and ease side effects caused by Western medicines".

Currently, the most useful and widely applied method worldwide in dealing with the AIDS is "highly active antiretroviral therapy" (HAART), which uses a combination of three or more anti-virus medicines together.

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI. ]