Health Minister Chua Jui Meng revealed today that Chinese herbs experimented by his ministry to treat 10 Aids patients produced positive results towards the virus level.

B ernama quoted him as saying that the patients, aged 35-63, showed obvious changes in the symptoms.

One patient gained body weight including an increase in CD4 count to 330cel/mm3 in the eighth week and 333cel/mm3 in the 12th week, he said.

If the CD4 count is less than 200cel/mm3, it shows the patient is in the late stages of HIV or categorised as Aids sufferer. Reduction in the virus is good for the patients.

Low level

Chua said the patients continued their last treatment o­n the 47th week and research revealed the virus level remained low and CD4 was 269cel/mm3.

"The patients did not suffer any side effects during the treatment and improvements were visible eventhough they were at the late stages of HIV infection."

However, it is too early to make a definite conclusion at this stage because the research period was too short and the number of patients were small, he said.

Chua said the ministry would continue their research by testing o­n more patients with low CD4 counts and over a longer period. He said it should be a long-term treatment as patients treated with Chinese herbs for about two years showed better health improvements.

For example, in You-an Hospital, Beijing studies are carried out based o­n the analysis done over three months, five months and two years involving seven different types of Chinese traditional herbs.

Asked about fundings for the research, Chua said it would be funded by those involved in the herbal industry.