In the face of increasing demand for medicine to prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome, the local government in Beijing is trying to ensure the supply of the medicine.

Since newspapers released the Chinese herbal prescriptions for preventing SARS on April 8, most pharmacies have been crowded with people wanting to buy this kind of medicine.

As of April 14, Beijing's pharmacies had sold about two million packages of Chinese herbal remedies, said Fang Laiying, deputy director of the local drug administration.

In some pharmacies, medicines that reportedly prevent SARS have been sold out, so the local drug administration is trying to help the enterprises buy raw materials from other provinces.

Tongrentang, a well-known traditional Chinese medicine producer in the Chinese capital, has promoted a kind of liquid medicine in a bottle, for which it has received daily orders for 160,000 bottles.

Due to the increasing price and quality problems of medicines caused by a shortage of raw materials, the Beijing drug administration has paid much attention to price and quality check on medicines, and established a feedback system, which can reveal the daily change in related medicine prices.

The administration has also worked with the local administration for industry and commerce to crack down on the illegal price-raising of medicine and related commodities, such as vinegar, salt and surgical masks, said Fang.

In Hong Kong, the school of traditional Chinese medicine at Baptist University has set up an anti-SARS committee and a telephone hot line to offer medical consultation and prescriptions.

It has also set up a special SARS unit within one of its on-campus clinics to offer medical consultation to the public.

Liu Liang, dean of traditional Chinese medicine at the university, said in a local radio interview yesterday that the university is making full use of the ancient Chinese herbal wisdom to help the public prevent the disease and offer post-recovery health maintenance treatment.

"Ideally, we hope to help the public prevent SARS, help the patients treat SARS and help the convalescents maintain health in post-recovery treatment," Liu said.

Clinical observations have shown that SARS patients who have recovered are considerably physically weakened, and Chinese medicine is in a better position to strengthen the body and help convalescents regain energy quickly so that they can resume work, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2003)