Via Xinhuanet, some details about the Shenzhen man who survived H5N1: Traditional Chinese medicine helpful to bird flu patient. Excerpt:

Traditional Chinese medicines have contributed a lot to the recovery of China's latest bird flu patient, said a Chinese medical expert on Saturday.

The patient, surnamed Jiang, 31, was discharged on August 2 from the Donghu Hospital after being treated here for about 50 days, in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

During the early period of Jiang's treatment, doctors used a kind of soup made by ginseng, a medicinal herb, to clear toxic heat in his body, said Zhou Boping, head of the hospital.

Hirudo, a medicine in China, was also used to activate blood circulation against stasis in the second phase, said Zhou.

Other Chinese medicines such as Cordyceps Sinesis, a Chinese caterpillar fungus, were also used to promote the function of lungs, according to Zhou.

The use of traditional Chinese medicines worked well along with other forms of treatment, said Zhou, also head of the medical team of experts for treating Jiang.

This story brings up a cultural issue: The premises and vocabulary of traditional Chinese medicine are simply different from those of Western medicine. What would your doctor think of a concept like "toxic heat," or "stasis"? Should we dismiss such ideas out of hand, or try to incorporate them into a health system that has no room for them? Are they a waste of time, or did they actually help Mr. Jiang to beat the odds against survival?