medicines and formulas have been used nationwide, and some of the representative drugs were injection of Herba houttuyniae, granule of Radix isatidis (Ban-langen), and combination formulas such as injection of Qing-kai-ling containing extractions from cholic acid, pearl shell, capejasmine fruit, honeysuckle flower, etc. According to the report on June 9 by Xin-hua News Agency, a technical task force group of National AntiSARS Administration has organized a multicentered clinical evaluation with more than 400 medical staff members participated. A total of 562 patients were enrolled in two groups, group A treated with the Western medicine and group B treated with combined Western and Chinese medicine. It was reported that patients in both groups had undergone a 14-day fever reduction period from the onset of fever to normal level. The fever-lowering process was smooth in group B, and patients in group A experienced fluctuations, most significantly at day 6–7. This clinical trial revealed that the treatment with combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine effectively improved clinical symptoms including dyspnea, non-productive caugh, fatigue, and malaise etc. Compared with group A, the mean time/durations of these symptoms in patients treated in group B were relatively shorter or less, specifically, dyspnea (2d), caugh (2d), fatigue (1d), and malaise (1d). There was no difference in headache and myalgias between the two groups. It was also observed that the combined Western/TCM program was advantageous in improving hypoxemia and protecting functions of lung and heart. Additionally, the use of TCM during the treatment significantly reduced the consumption of corticosteroids such as methylprednisolone and hydrocortisone for patients with severe cases, therefore reduced side effects from the large dose of corticosteroids. There was a two-day international Anti-SARS forum held in Beijing on June 3, where officials and medical experts participated from thirteen Southeast Asian countries. Clinical results from treatment with TCM were presented by TCM experts from six major Chinese hospitals. The presentations reported several clinical findings. (1) TCM was able to speed up the recovery of inflammation in lung and have radiological efficacy. Patients in Beijing Di-tan hospital were x-ray examined at 20 days on the status of unilateral or bilateral peripheral or central interstitial infiltrates that were initially diagnosed. 25 out of 30 patients with TCM involvement showed removal of air-space shadowing Dear Editor, SARS has created international anxiety because of its relatively high contagiosity, rapid progression of disease, relatively high death rate, and the fact that it has caused illness in a large proportion of exposed medical and nursing personnel. As of June 13, 2003, there had been 8454 cases and 792 deaths (a death rate of 9.4 percent) reported in 32 countries. The main effective preventive measure for SARS is to quarantine those already infected. This is coupled with actions to disinfect public facilities, and to reduce travel, meetings and gatherings in the disease areas. At the time of this writing, the SARS epidemic was largely under control worldwide. Since the main centre of the infection has been in Southeast Asia, China took a major ‘strike’ in the combat with SARS, accounting for over 60 percent of the patients, including probably the very first victim of the disease from Guangdong province. Over the past two months, there have been extensive news reports on the use of herbal therapies to prevent or treat SARS in south east Asia, especially in the mainland of China, and it has become a general knowledge that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was responsible for the relatively low death rate of SARS patients in China. Due to the lack of scientific reports published, to date, from Chinese anti-SARS research programs, and the fact that most of clinical research programs are still on-going at this point, we provide an initial comment on this TCM issue based on the published information as well as our observations and communications within the community. From the officially reported numbers of patients and deaths in the mainland of China, the death rate calculated (approximately 6.5 percent) was lower than the worldwide average number (9.3 percent). As far as we know, more than 50 percent of patients have been treated with an integrated Western medicine/Chinese medicine approach since early April. The treatment with TCM involved the use of herbal medicines in the dosage forms of injection, decoction, and other oral liquid forms. Most of the herbal medicines fall into two categories: drugs for clearing heat and dampness plus detoxification, and drugs for promoting blood circulation and relieving blood stasis. Hundreds of herbal