A combined Chinese and western therapy has helped the SARS patient in the eastern China province of Anhui recover, sources with the provincial health administration told Xinhua Thursday.

The combined therapy is based on a proposal submitted by experts with the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and has been tailored by five herbal medicine specialists based in the province after comprehensive consultation and analysis of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) case, officials say.

These herbalists have been included as members of an expert panel to treat the SARS patient surnamed Song, who is receiving treatment at the No. 1 Hospital affiliated to Anhui Medical University.

Officials say Song's condition is "stable" and her temperature has been normal for 13 consecutive days.

The province has traced 115 close contacts of the patient and 103 of them have been freed from medical observation.

Song is a 26-year-old postgraduate at Anhui Medical University. She studied in Beijing at a laboratory of the institute of virus diseases under the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control from March 7 to 22.

On March 23, Song came back to Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, by train and then returned to Beijing by train after complaining of fever on March 25. Later she went to see doctors at Beijing and Huainan City of Anhui Province. On April 4, she was transferred to the No. 1 hospital affiliated to Anhui Medical University for viral pneumonia.

Song's mother died on April 19 and was diagnosed posthumously of SARS. They are the only two SARS cases reported in the eastern province since April 23.

Nationwide, seven SARS cases have been reported in Beijing and no diagnosed or suspected cases are reported in other provinces.

Source: Xinhua