According to The Canberra Times on Tuesday, Archie Kalokerinos,a GP from Newcastle in New South Wales, and John West, a medical researcher from Queensland, said it had been shown scientifically that vitamin C could neutralisz any virus provided it was properly administered at a correct dose level.

Kalokerinos said he had successfully treated patients for hepatitis, flu, shingles and glandular fever, which were all viral infections, just as SARS is. But, he added, for the treatment to work, it's necessary to get the patient early enough before irreparable damage is done and the patient's immune system is totally destroyed like the terminal stages of HIV-AIDS.

West said vitamin C is not toxic, even at high levels, trials could be carried out directly on SARS patients and nothing is going to be risked by trying it.

No confirmed SARS patient was found yet in Australia and both the two have no real experience in treatments of the newly emergeddisease.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2003)