Assessing the effect of traditional Chinese medicine on CD4+ lymphocyte count of 807 HIV/AIDS cases

National Free Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) HIV/AIDS Treatment Program had been carried out for more than 5 years, treating 9267 cases accumulately by 2009. We report the 3-year outcome on CD4+ lymphocyte count of 807 cases of HIV/AIDS enrolled in the National Free TCM HIV/AIDS Treatment Pro- gram, the CD4+ lymphocyte count were measured every 6 month at 7 time points (0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36 month). The results showed that the overall CD4+ ly mphocyte count maintained stable at the 6th month and the 12th month, declined significantly at the 18th month, 24th month and 30th month, then elevated to the pre-treatment level at the 36th month. Patients with pre-treatment CD4+ lymphocyte count level 350/mm3 had CD4+ lymphocyte count declined significantly after all visits. In summary, combined treatment of Chinese herbal medicine and conventional therapy on HIV/AIDS suggested promising effect, but more evidences from larger, rigorous designed studies still needed to support the affirmative effect of TCM in the future.