Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) from Perspective of Dampness-toxicity Plagues/ 从湿毒疫论治新型冠状病毒肺炎

By reviewing the understanding of epidemic diseases in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), comparing and analyzing the major epidemic diseases experienced in China in the past 20 years, it is believed that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in December 2019 should be treated as “dampness-toxicity plagues” With the spread of the epidemic, the number of cases gradually increasing, and the clinical manifestations and onset regularity of the patients gradually becoming clear, it was found that early clinical manifestations of the disease were fever or no fever and fever often being accompanied by multiple symptoms of hiding fever, dry cough, fatigue, vomiting, loose stools, diarrhea and other digestive symptoms The tongue coating is generally greasy, and has obvious dampness-toxicity into the disease, and the disease is located in the lung and the spleen The majority of patients were with slow onset, long incubation period, and relatively mild symptoms, while a few patients could rapidly develop into syndromes such as phlegm and blood stasis obstructing the lung, pathogen and poison blocking the lung, and inner blocking causing collapse etc ,among whom severe to critical illness cases presented characteristics of the typical dampness-toxicity such as being sticky, difficult to cure The convalescence period after the virus turns negative presented the characteristics of repeated pathogenic qi and lingering heat, and in particular, the repair of immune functions and tissue damage in severe patients needed to take a long time SARS,2009 H1N1 Flu and COVID-19 were compared and analyzed, and it was believed that the epidemic diseases in modern times were mostly dampness, especially the current one Therefore, the role of TCM should be brought into full play in the process of prevention and treatment, and we should pay attention to the treatment according to the syndrome based on eliminating dampness, detoxication, eliminating dirt and resolving turbidity