Traditional Chinese medicine might be able to cure viral hepatitis and ascites due to cirrhosis, as released by a medical monograph of an expert in hepatitis.

In his newly published book of "Study on Cirrhosis," Wang Yue, doctor with the Epidemic Prevention Station in Qufu City of east China's Shandong Province, said that materials extracted from a herb can kill the virus that causes hepatitis B.

Sources said that clinic experiments carried out among about 388 cases prove the validity of the herb material. Medicine was produced based on that material in 1998 and has been approved through a provincial test.

Wang also abandoned traditional methods for treating ascites and found a new therapy, which has healed at least one patient suffering from late-period ascites due to cirrhosis.

Wang started to collect and examine herbs with medical efficiency in the mountainous areas in the 1980s. He has developed more than 200 therapies dealing with various diseases and was rewarded by Ministry of Health.

(People's Daily 11/14/2000)