Thoughts And Methods Of Preventing And Treating Influenza With Traditional Chinese Medicine

Objective:With data mining on Chinese medicine literature of preventing and treating influenza in recent 20 years, this essay analyzes the regularities of drug use, compares the discrepancy, and summarizes the etiology, pathogenesis, as well as prevention and treatment methods generally and from various aspects, such as categories of influenza, regions, climate, seasons and population. Based on the theories and practice of the ancient prevention and treatment of diseases related to influenza, personal thoughts and methods are also put forward with the aim to provide effective instructions for further theoretical and clinical research on prevention and treatment of current influenza.Methods:1. Sort out the ancient literature concerned with influenza with traditional research approach.2. Establish influenza database, exploit the statistical software of SPSS 18.0 and apply the method of multivariate statistics to analyze the regularities of drug use on the prevention and treatment of influenza in the past 20 years.Results:1. Establish a preliminary influenza database. 354 articles are selected and information such as name of article, year of publication, region, season, sex and age of patient, prescription and drug is inputted. There are total 504 prescriptions and 232 herbs.2. Conclude general regularities of drug use. The properties of the medicine are mostly of cold and cool nature, while the flavors of the medicine are mainly bitter, pungent and sweet. The channel tropism is mainly attributed to the lung, the stomach, the heart, the spleen and the liver. The top 10 herbs(except raw Gancao) are Jinyinhua, Lianqiao, Huangqin, Jiegeng, Banlangen, Shigao, Xingren, Bohe, Chaihu and Jingjie. The types of herbal efficacy can be devided into 18 categories. Drug compatibility is expanded centered on Jinyinhua and Lianqiao, combining heat-clearing and detoxicating drug, exterior syndrome relieving drug, heat-clearing and fire-clearing drug as well as antitussive and antasthmatic drug.3. Analyze the regularities and discrepancy of drug use from various aspects. Apply the method of Chi-squared test and Logistic multiple regression analysis to compare the drug use of influenza A vs B and undefined type, South vs North, various temperature zones, various humidity provinces, winter and spring vs summer, and children vs adults. Determine the specific drugs with discrepancies. Find out and compare the drug compatibility by the method of association rule analysis.4. Summary the current problems that exist in the prevention and treatment.Such as, divergence of the etiology, desalting differentiation, frequent heat clearing and toxity relieving, ignoring special person.5. Put forward the thoughts of preventing and treating influenza that includes four aspects: first, in terms of recognizing pathogenesis, one shall know the commonness of the disease for the change and unify cold and warm; second, diagnosing pattern of “analogous diseases” and comprehensive differentiation focused on Weifen Qifen Yingfen and Xuefen are adopted; third, drug use in early stage and prevention first are laid great emphasis, with the aim to eliminating evil first while strengthening healthy qi and to give full play to external treatment to enrich treatment methods; fourth, compatibility of medicines through differentiation is taken as the principle thing in medication with pharmacology as the auxiliary, the special formula taken as the principle thing, which shall be adjusted according to different syndromes and drug use variations based on different regions, seasons and groups of people have been laid great emphasis.Conclusion:1. Etiology and pathogenesis of influenza is complex. At present, the etiology of influenza is main of wind-heat epidemic pathogenic factors, which might be mixed with cold, damp, heat and other pathogenic factors influenced by various factors as influenza types, regional climates and morbidity seasons. The disease location focuses mainly in the lung and “toxic pathogenic qi invading the lung” is the key pathogenesis.2. Syndrome differentiation is flexble. Weifen Qifen Yingfen and Xuefen syndrome- differentiation, tri-jiao syndrome differentiation and syndrome-differentiation of six meridians could be adopted flexibly, among which Weifen Qifen Yingfen and Xuefen syndrome-differentiation is used the most.3. Characteristics in drug use is clear. One is diverse and complex drug and the other is regional feature.4. Discrepancies of drug use exist in various aspects. The medications represent to some certain the characteristics of “syndrome differentiation and treatment” and “treatise on the Three Categories of Pathogenic Factors”. Moreover, the treatment chosen according to the variability of an individual shall be paid more attention.5. In the term of present prevention and treatment of influenza, it is significant to follow the guidance of the prevention and treatment theories of plague by traditional Chinese medicine in ancient times.