The Basis for Korean Medicine's Chance at Curing SARS

○ The main symptoms of SARS including fever (over 38℃), cough, muscular pain, difficulty in breathing, lethargy, sore throat and developing into pneumonia are exactly the same as those of Epidemic Febrile disease in Korean Medicine. Therefore, the same prevention methods and treatments can be performed.

○ The characteristic of Korean Medicine is that it does not look for the cause of a disease in germs and viruses. Instead, it aims at treating the disease more focused on the symptoms brought out by the disease.

○ Some symptoms like the pulse and considering one's physical constitution are observed by a trained professional, while some symptoms like fever and cough can be noticed by anyone.

○ Logically, any disease, no matter how many various forms they change into, can be prevented and cured by analysing and categorizing it the right way.

○ Korean Medicine considers differing individuals, in the physical nature or environment. (This is called Sasang Constitutional Medicine, a prominent difference between Chinese Medicine and Korean Medicine.)

○ It is highly probable that Korean Medicine can cure SARS with our long accumulated knowledge and clinical experience, on the basis of our logic.

Proofs given in <Dong Eui Bo Gam>

○ <Dong Eui Bo Gam> is a classic of Korean Medicine which reorganized old prescriptions to suit our people's physical characteristics, through prolonged experience.

○ Compared with Chinese prescriptions, those with the same name and ingredients can have different measurements (in quantities of herbs). In most cases, although the name of a medicine is the same, the constitution of the medicine is totally different in Korea and China. (This reflects clinical experience accumulated over a long period of time.)

○ The four-hundred years of clinical trial between the publication of <Dong Eui Bo Gam> and today prove the scientific basis of Korean Medicine. In more recent years, <Dong Eui Su Se Bo Won> contributed largely to the establishment of the study of Sasang.

Western Medicine's Limit in dealing with SARS, and Korean Medicine's counter-merit

○ The cause of SARS is clarified as Corona Virus.

○ Corona Virus is a general term for viruses in the shape of a crown. Since it mutates indefinitely, it is impossible to develop a vaccine, that works on specific targets only.

○ The channel for contagion of Corona Virus is still unclear.

--the established theory that it enters via respiratory organs cannot explain the infection of hospital staffs who wore masks.

--Hong Kong Administration of Health hints that bugs or rats could have transferred virus-contaminated sewage water.

--after Corona Virus has been found in the body of a cat in a SARS infected area, cats are being taken as one of the sources of infection.

--some experts argue that viruses in the urine and feces of SARS patients are airborne and contaminate the area.

○ This uncertainty in the route of contagion is acting as a huge obstacle for Western Medicine's prevention and cure of SARS.

○ Korean Medicine can be applied in any situation, for it has the characteristic of holistically treating the symptoms of the disease brought on by a mutant virus. It does not prevent disease by blocking the pathogen, but rather by raising the resistance of the whole body.

Conclusion on SARS in Korean Medicine's View

○ SARS is not a mysterious disease, it is a kind of Epidemic Febrile disease in Korean Medicine, and is very similar to old recordings of diseases that appeared in the past. Korean Medicine has approached such epidemics in the past with a variety of metohds, and SARS may also be dealt with successfully. (The exact mechanism of the cures are give in Article 1. SARS - What is it in Korean Medicine?)