Chinese herbal medicine effective in treatment

A controlled trial has found that Chinese herbal medicine decoction maxingshigan-yinqiaosan has a similar efficacy to oseltamivir in reducing time to fever resolution in people suffering mild H1N1 influenza virus infections. Carried out by a group of Chinese researchers, headed by Prof. Wang Chen with Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital under the Capital Medical University, the study was published by the famous internal medicine journal Ann Intern Med on Tuesday. Participants of the trial were 410 young adults aged 15 to 59 years with laboratory-confirmed H1N1 influenza. The researchers concluded that both active intervention, alone and in combination, were effective in reducing time to fever resolution in young adults with H1N1 flu, and therefore suggest that maxingshigan-yinqiaosan may be an alternative to oseltamivir.