Experts from the World Health Organization said here Monday that the effect of traditional Chinese herbal medicine on the treatment of atypical pneumonia needs their further attention and study.

After a discussion with doctors from the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, James Maguire from the WHO medical team said patients in the hospital have more rapidly recovered from the disease.

Maguire said they need to further study and keep a close watch with this information about the effect of Chinese medicine on atypical pneumonia treatment.

The hospital has received 112 atypical pneumonia patients during the past two months. To date, those already cured spent an average of seven days to bring down their fever caused by the disease and left the hospital after 18 days.

The hospital has used traditional Chinese medicine to help treat patients while it has also resorted to Western medicine like many other hospitals.

Compared with ordinary pneumonia, the disease can be divided into the early, middle, climax and late phases, said Lin Lin, a director of the hospital's respiratory department, adding that they have used different Chinese medicines on patients according to their different phases.

"The therapy recommended by the Guangdong Provincial Health Bureau mainly focuses on Western medicine," Lin said. "But patients have alleviated their syndromes and shortened their time in hospital after we used Chinese medicine to help treat the disease."

To date, the mystery disease has struck more than 1,200 people on the Chinese mainland, of whom 51 have died.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2003)