China concern over Sars drugs

More than 5,000 people were infected with Sars in China

A group of experts in China is investigating the side-effects of medication for the Sars virus, after reports that many recovered patients have been suffering bone degeneration.

The state-run China Daily said a team from the Ministry of Health would focus on a condition called avascular necrosis of the hips.

The condition can cause paralysis and is a known side effect of strong doses of corticosteroids, one of the family of steroid drugs.

They were used in the first half of this year to treat Sars patients.

The China Daily said "many" people were now suffering from bone degeneration, but it did not have precise figures.

Earlier this month, the Beijing News reported that between 33% and 50% of Sars sufferers in city's medical profession, were suffering from avascular necrosis.

Dr Julie Hall, who heads the World Health Organisation (WHO) Sars Response Team in China, told the AFP news agency that she did not know if Chinese people had been informed of the risk.

"The WHO always says they should be told, but this, of course, had to be balanced against the alternatives. These people were extremely sick," she said.

About 5,327 people were infected with Sars in China with 349 of those dying.

Dr Hall said that she believed only 20% of people who got Sars in China required intensive therapy with steroids.