The clinical characteristics and treatment of community outbreaks of the new influenza A (H1N1) infection

Objective To describe the clinical characteristics of 3 community outbreaks of the novel influenza A (H1N1), and to compare the treatment effects of the traditional Chinese medicine with or without Oseltamivir. Method The clinical records of 234 patients in 3 community outbreaks of the novel influenza A (H1N1) infection in June (n=56), August (n=96) and October (n=82) of 2009 were analyzed, and the treatment effects of the traditional Chinese medicine with or without Oseltamivir were evaluated. Results The baseline characteristics, including age, temperature, indices of blood tests, hepatic and renal functions were distributed evenly between the 2 treatment groups. The overall analysis suggested that there was no significant difference between the 2 treatment groups in the duration of clinical symptoms (P>0.05), the duration of fever (P>0.05), and the hospitalization days (P>0.05). However, an analysis stratified by the temperature (≥39 ℃ or <39 ℃) suggested that patients treated by the traditional Chinese medicine with Oseltamivir tended to suffer a shorter duration of fever [ 40.5 (37.3, 42.0) vs 22.0 (10.5, 30.8) hr, P<0.01) ] in the higher temperature group. Conclusions The traditional Chinese medicine was equivalent to oseltamivir in treating patients with the novel influenza A (H1N1) infection with lower temperature (<39 ℃). Oseltamivir was effective in shortening the duration of fever in patients with temperature higher than 39 ℃. Key words: Influenza A, H1N1 subtype; Agglomeration