A cure for the birdish bird flu, could very well lie in the hearbal realm. Take traditional chinease medicine for example, its usage dates back to a couple of thousand years. Appended, even though this ancient, naturally based, medicine's active components are hard to isolate; it has proven its efficacy time and again. Thus, to sarcastically suggest hearbal remidies' ineffectiveness without any profound evidence I find pretty despicable.

This is like trying to say by administering chicken noodle soup to a pneumonia victim will cure them. There are currently drugs to treat avian influenza at the moment but are under strict watch. The problem with avian influenza is the many strains that there are and the fact that it is a virus and mutates. It could turn into something much worse if the strain decides to mutate through cross species. There is currently a lot of research going on to completely understand how this is transmitted. We know so far that you can contract AI through direct contact with an infected bird.

Correct, and I surmise lemmon tea won't cure the common cold. However, there are a lot of herbs and other natural substances that effectively counter-act viruses. Garlic, which is an ingredient in Kimchi containing the supposedly only active substance allicin, is often reffered to as a natural anti-biotic. Meaning it supports immune function and can kill bacteria, parasites, fungus and the flu virus. Although cancer is non-viral by nature and therefore not directly relevant, I believe the proven fact that garlic can destroy virtually any skin tumor deserves mentioning. For tumors within the body, the active substance allicin is given intravenously. This procedure includes the binding of allicin to an anti-body that binds with tumor cells. Nevertheless, back to the anti-viral properties of natural substances. A traditional Chinese medicine called compound SH has been demonstrated to be effective against AIDS, reducing or inhibiting growth of viral concentrations in test subjects. Other (not necessarily chinese) natural remidies include the Elderberry, which halts the replication of influenza viruses found in humans. Isatis tinctoria is used to treat encephalitis B, which is a viral inflammation of the brain. The list goes on and on. You should also be aware that most of the large pharmacy corporations claim medicine patents comprised of knowledge stolen from tribes of remote places all over the earth. So before insolently dismissing the combined knowledge and experience of more than 5000 years and of various cultures, one should at leasti consider the possibility of "alternative" methods of progress.

[edit on 14-4-2005 by noyhcat]