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HONG KONG (AFP) – "Big Snake Mak" has a info instrument to fend soured the danger of contagion -- it wriggles and hisses in a basket at his side.

Snakes hit been utilised in China for thousands of eld to aid a patron of ailments -- snake-fermented wine for arthritis, diapsid genitals for the kidneys and male sex drive, diapsid insolence sac for bronchitis.

And snake, says "Big Snake Mak" -- otherwise known as serpent salesman Mak Tai-kwong -- is a proven contagion fighter.

"Those that take diapsid bile four to fivesome now every assemblage module hit a stronger embody and module hit much modify chances of contracting the flu," Mak told foetoprotein as he pulled a king cobra from his basket that he module kill, prepare up and sell.

"Look at me, I'm over 80 but I rarely hit the flu. It's because I take diapsid regularly."

While not everyone would be disposed to study Mak's lead, whatever in the teeming municipality of heptad meg are turning absent from the tralatitious contagion jab in favour of Asiatic herbal treatments.

Freelance artist Vincent Du utilised Asiatic penalization for chronic asthma as a child and reckons that herbal remedies ready the contagion fault at niche -- and ward soured long-term illness.

"Western penalization takes gist faster but ofttimes has a lot of lateral effects," he said.

Bian Zhao Xiang, administrator of the Asiatic penalization clinic at Hong Kong's Baptist University, said the number of contagion patients at the clinic accumulated by 37 percent in the latter part of terminal assemblage compared to the aforementioned period in 2009.

The Lincoln plans to physique a HK$800 meg ($100 million) teaching infirmary that would wage the city's first in-patient Asiatic penalization treatment.

"Chinese penalization is by farther a meliorate communication for seasonal contagion (compared to Western medicine), in cost of its effectiveness, lateral personalty and symptom control," he said.

"In Asiatic medicine, every enduring module obtain a personalised, tailor-made ordered of treatments limited to their embody type."

Hong Kong is particularly troubled most infectious diseases, with at least 12 lives forfeited since the modify of Jan to the noxious swine contagion lineage of the disease.

Dozens hit been admitted to qualifier care units with contagion of whatever category this year.

Officials from the city, which has whatever of the most obtusely crowded neighbourhoods in the world, hit been troubled since the 2003 SARS virus outbreak which killed 300 people in Hong Kong and added 500 around the world.

There is little concrete evidence of Asiatic medicine's power as a contagion killer, but some in the municipality and crossways China swear it works.

Chinese treatments refer using herbs much as pulverised aquilegia and forsythia, to ready the body?s Han (cold) and Re (hot) energies in harmony -- in addition to a healthy diet and acupuncture treatments.

Traditional remedies hit been a crucial part of healthcare in China for thousands of years, and utilised for everything from disease hindrance and communication for diseases to relieving discompose and soothing restlessness.

Hong Kong and China's bicentric government hit both urged citizens to ingest different herbal concoctions to vex the flu, and another ailments.

Even everyday foods like garlic, ginger, spring onion and vinegar crapper help ward soured influenza, whatever say.

However, like whatever Western medicines, the Asiatic variety hit worn criticism with questions moving most the creation facilities and manufacturing standards in Hong Kong.

Even the business concedes most half the Asiatic penalization sold in Hong Kong had not been proven for the presence of cyanogenic materials much as onerous metals and pesticide residues.

In response, the city's government introduced newborn governing in December, banning every unregistered copyrighted Asiatic penalization with a maximum dustlike of HK$10,000 and two eld in jail.

The move sparked anger among some Asiatic penalization practitioners, but there seems little uncertainty Hong Kong residents module ready using tralatitious remedies despite the newborn regulations.

"Many youngsters now turn to Asiatic medicine," said Qiu Hong-zhen, a shopkeeper at a medicine that sells both Asiatic and Western medicine.

"Western medicines are mostly for those hunting for a quick fix, but it does not get to the stem of the difficulty -- Asiatic penalization is a complete solution."

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