The Kidney Diseases and Institute of Organ Transplantation (KIOT) hospital in Chennai has developed an herbal dialysis system to cure patients suffering from Hepatitis B and C.

The hospital claims it was the first of its kind herbal dialysis system in the world to treat Hepatitis. In this system, the hospital uses herbal infused dialysate instead of the allopathic formulations used in the normal dialysis. The treatment cost is considerably low at Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000 against the expense of the normal dialysis process, which runs to a few lakhs of rupees.

The herbal method was developed after extensive research for many years and the preliminary data was first published during March this year at the national conference of Hemodialysis Society of India, a subsidiary of the International Hemodialysis Society, New Delhi. Later elaborate data was released at the third National Siddha conference held in Chennai, during July, informed officials.

A recent paper 'Transplantation in Hepatitis - Patients role for herbal dialysis' will be published at the 'Transplantasia 2004 meet in Singapore. The findings will be also published in the medical journal 'International Journal Transplantation Proceedings', informed Dr. P Ravichandran, chief consultant and Head of Nephrology and Transplantation, KIOT, at a press conference.

He said the hospital has treated about 18 patients, including foreign nationals, and the results were highly successful. Of this, 12 have undergone successful kidney transplantation. In the case of the foreign national Daud, who was found to have been infected with Hepatitis C virus, and each milliliter of the body tissue contained more than four lakh Hepatitis C virus. After the herbal dialysis, it came down to less than 85,000, said the doctor.