The Brishamin capsule is prepared from Brihaspa atrostigmella, which is known as a valuable traditional medicine. Objectives: 1) Evaluating the effects of Brishamin capsule relating to promoting physical health and Improving the immune system in supportive treatment of HIV/AIDS patients who have no Antiretroviral treatment (ARV) indication
2) Investigating of unexpected side effects of the Brishamin capsule. Method: Clinical trial with a double - blind, placebo - controlled study. 70 HIV/AIDS patients from 2 Dong Anh and Hoang Mai district health centers, who have no ARV indication were recruited and divided in two groups (each group Included 35 patients): The study group used Brishamin capsule. and control group used a placebo. All study subjects got a continuous 3 months treatment. Results: Comparing pre - and post - treatment, the patients in the study group significantly improved according to clinical and laboratory tests Indicators as follows: Body weight Increased 1.11 +/- 1.86 kg
Bugard - Crocq score decreased 4.44 +/- 6.8, 57.14 percent patients improved clinical classification
total serum protein and albumin increased 3.41 +/- 7.04 g/l and 3.58 +/- 9.7 g/l. TCD4 count increased on average 15.59 +/- 95.98 cell/mm3. The results in the study group also showed improvement of the latter index in comparison to the control group (p 0.05). During the 3 months treatment, Brishamin had no unexpected effects after using a dosage of 10 Brishamin capsules/day (equally using 2.5g Brihaspa atrostigmella dried powder per day). Conclusions: Brishamin capsules had positive effects on the physical health and the immune system as supportive treatment of HIV/AIDS patients who have no antiretroviral treatment (ARV) indication and there were no unexpected side effects.