Treating Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease by Clearing Heat and Removing Dampness

Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common infectious disease. Most cases in our province are mild cases. Children can usually recover on their own within a week. As long as there are no complications, they are fine. Yang Lixin, chief physician of the Department of Pediatrics at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said: "Hand, foot and mouth disease, including EV71, belongs to the category of 'warm disease' in traditional Chinese medicine theory. Years of clinical experience have shown that traditional Chinese medicine has good advantages in the prevention and treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease, and prevention and early treatment of traditional Chinese medicine are more effective. Enterovirus belongs to the category of warm poison in traditional Chinese medicine, which is called damp-heat epidemic poison. Guangzhou has a humid climate, and some children with heavy body moisture are particularly susceptible to viruses. Therefore, it is more suitable for them to take traditional Chinese medicine for clearing heat, detoxifying and removing dampness. Severe patients need to cooperate with Western medicine treatment, and the combination of Chinese and Western medicine can have a very good effect."

The treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease in traditional Chinese medicine can be roughly divided into three stages: prodromal stage, eruption stage and recovery stage. During treatment, the prescription should be formulated based on the patient's different clinical symptoms and the dosage should be increased or decreased accordingly.

Prodromal stage: The main symptoms of patients are fever, slight aversion to wind, cough, nasal congestion and runny nose, even poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. The tongue coating is thin and white, and the pulse is floating and rapid. It is advisable to cool down and relieve the exterior symptoms, evacuate wind and heat, and use Yinqiao powder plus or minus treatment. It is recommended that citizens put honeysuckle, cotton wormwood, rush, kapok, winter melon, etc. into water, boil it and drink it as tea for several consecutive days; parents who are worried that the prescription is too cold can add lentils. Adults can also drink herbal tea that clears heat and dampness to prevent diseases.

Eruption stage: The main clinical symptoms during the eruption stage are oral pain and refusal to eat, a large number of herpes on the skin of the hands and feet and the oropharynx, local itching, accompanied by fever, irritability, restless sleep, yellow and red urine, dry or loose stools, red tongue, yellow and greasy coating, and slippery and rapid pulse. The treatment is mainly to clear away heat, detoxify and remove dampness. Prescriptions and medicines are prepared according to the different conditions of the children or combined with rash removal.

Recovery period: Since the evil heat poison in the early course of the disease consumes the yin fluid, and the herpes in the oropharynx affects the patient's eating, the patient's main problem in the later stage of the disease is that the yin is damaged and the spleen is deficient. The symptoms are that the herpes gradually disappears, accompanied by the gradual decline of body heat, thirst, poor appetite, red tongue with little fluid, and thin pulse. The treatment should be mainly to strengthen the spleen and promote transportation, produce fluid and nourish yin. You can use 6 grams of dried tangerine peel, 6 grams of Magnolia officinalis, 6 grams of Atractylodes macrocephala, 2 grams of Amomum villosum (added later), 6 grams of Shenqu, 9 grams of Ophiopogon japonicus, and 9 grams of Phragmites australis. Take 1 dose per day, decoct twice in water, take 100 ml of juice, and take it in the morning and evening. Or use Adenophora Root and Ophiopogon Decoction, Four Gentlemen Decoction and other prescriptions as recovery period conditioning prescriptions.

It should be noted that each patient’s situation is different as to how to correctly use prescriptions and medicines, and they should be taken correctly under the guidance of a professional doctor.