Researchers analyzed 27 clinical trials in which chronic hepatitis B patients using Chinese herbal medicine alone, or with interferon alfa, were compared with a control group of patients that were taking only interferon alfa. The protein interferon alfa is a standard treatment for hepatitis B infection. Some of its side effects include strong flu-like symptoms, fatigue and depression.

The meta-analysis, to be published Oct. 1 in the American Journal of Public Health, found that the most encouraging results came from patients who used a combination of Chinese herbal treatments and interferon alfa.

"The results are encouraging enough that, if I had chronic hepatitis B and had previously failed interferon alfa treatment, I would talk to my doctor about combining interferon alfa with Chinese herbal medicine," said Michael McCulloch, a doctoral student in epidemiology at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

According to the World Health Organization, 2 billion people worldwide are infected with hepatitis B, 350 million of whom have the chronic form of the disease. About three-fourths of those with chronic hepatitis B live in Asia.

"There is a wealth of data about hepatitis B from researchers in Asia because the disease is endemic in that part of the world, but accessing that information has been - and still is - difficult because few of those studies are published in English-language journals," said McCulloch, who is also a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

McCulloch, who earned his bachelor's degree in Chinese studies at UC Berkeley, searched through six databases of medical literature, including
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Contact: Sarah Yang
scy@pa.urel.berkeley.edu
510-643-7741
University of California - Berkeley
1-Oct-2002