Flu TCM: just a placebo?

In scenes reminiscent of the SARS outbreak a decade ago and the 2009 bird flu outbreak, customers across China have been lining up at pharmacies to buy isatis root beverages, known as banlangen in Chinese, after authorities said it could be used to prevent H7N9 bird flu infections.

With H7N9 causing sporadic infections and several fatalities across eastern China, authorities have been eager to come up with solutions to calm an anxious public, and as one of the most common traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) products, banlangen was an obvious choice.

In contrast to other recent cases of panic buying which were engineered by drug companies or caused by wild rumors, the suggestion to use banlangen was backed by the authorities.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine both published treatment and prevention guides, advising different forms of TCM and prescriptions, including banlangen, to prevent bird flu.

Despite this official backing, the public remains skeptical over banlangen's ability to protect against bird flu.

An online survey by Sina with over 80,000 participants showed that over 45 percent of respondents did not trust the TCM prescription given by health authorities. Most of them asked the question: if H7N9 is a new virus that has not appeared before, how can those experts say that TCM will be useful if there haven't been enough cases to perform tests?

Evidently these doubts aren't affecting sales. According to the survey, some 47 percent said they would still buy some TCM, as there was no other alternative.

TCM emergency plans

As of press time, seven regions had announced TCM plans to prevent the H7N9 bird flu virus, which has claimed nine lives and caused 28 cases of infection across eastern China.

"After 2003, when TCM worked well in treating SARS, the top health ministry built a TCM emergency procedure," said an official surnamed Li from the press office of the health department in Jiangsu Province, where eight people have been infected.

Li told the Global Times that under the procedure, local governments, especially those with cases of infection, should formulate their own TCM prevention plans based on the guide mapped out by the top health authorities as soon as any new epidemics emerged.

"Taking into account the local climate and geographical characteristics, experts concluded that banlangen and the astragals root would be useful to prevent bird flu viruses, including H7N9," said Li, while refusing to comment on whether the expert panel had done any tests yet.

"Regardless of what kind of new virus is being treated, the herbalist doctors can write prescriptions after determining the imbalances inside the body based on the patient's different symptoms," one of experts on the Jiangsu panel told the Global Times.

He said that this was the reason why health authorities decided to use TCM as an emergency plan before any effective medicines or vaccines have been developed.