ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: The high costs of modern medicines are causing many people to turn to traditional remedies when they get sick. Vietnam Television reports on how some doctors are treating their patients with herbal medicine.</s>NGOC TUAN, VIETNAM TELEVISION (voice-over): This patient is not being plastered but treated his leg wounds with traditional medical herbs. The herbal remedy can shorten a patient's hospitalization period and reduce medical doses he has to take if treated with a Western method. Vietnam's traditional medical centers are providing their therapy to 30 percent of in-patients with low cost.</s>DR. HOANG DINH CAU, VIETNAM PHARMACY ASSOC. (through translator): I think traditional medicine can meet people's demands. It can treat a wide range of health problems with high efficiency, low cost and less side effects than modern medicine. We now need further studies in the herbs utilities to diversify prescriptions.</s>GOH LEE GAN, SINGAPORE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: There is a lot of potential to</s>TUAN: Vietnam has favorable climatic conditions to grow herbs and has seen a continuous expansion of herb areas in the last decade. The availability of materials is another factor vital to promoting practices of a traditional style of medical treatments. The traditional medicine, which was built up long before the modern one, is proving a best solution to those who are poor and living in areas without clinics. The World Health Organization reports that 80 percent of the world population is following treatments from herbs, and Vietnam says it does not want to waste potentials to improve health care to its people.
Vietnamese Clinics Experiment with Traditional Medicines