Warning of complications when arbitrarily using oriental medicine to treat chickenpox
This is the "season" of chickenpox, many people choose Oriental medicine to treat chickenpox to avoid scarring. However, medical experts recommend that it is necessary to have the prescription or guidance of an Oriental medicine doctor because if the treatment is not correct, chickenpox will cause blood infection, complications such as pneumonia, myelitis, encephalitis, etc.
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| Parents should not use traditional remedies to treat chickenpox in children. Photo: TL |
This is the season of chicken pox. Hospitals have recorded many cases of not only children but also adults. In addition to Western medicine, many people choose Eastern medicine to treat chicken pox to avoid scarring.
On a forum about children, many mothers have passed on to each other a remedy for chickenpox using mulberry leaves, combined with some other oriental medicines such as Cyperus rotundus, licorice… then boiled to get the water to drink. As shared on the Internet, just do it continuously for 2 days and the chickenpox spots will gradually disappear.
Regarding this issue, physician Vu Quoc Trung - Vietnam Oriental Medicine Association said that the use of Oriental medicine to treat chickenpox is still applicable but requires caution. Parents should not arbitrarily prescribe medicine for children, or use oral remedies, when using it, there must be a prescription or guidance from an Oriental medicine doctor.
According to traditional medicine, chicken pox is caused by wind-heat invading the lungs through the mouth. In mild cases, chicken pox appears sporadically, with a mild fever, little cough, clear nasal discharge, and a normal diet, the treatment method is to clear wind and heat. Accordingly, many people still pass on the word that just bathing in mulberry leaf water or drinking mulberry leaf water can cure the disease. But this is completely wrong.
In fact, in Oriental medicine for chickenpox, there is a recipe using mulberry leaves to make a drink, but it needs to be combined with many other herbs. For example, the recipe includes the following ingredients: 12g mulberry leaves, 16g bamboo leaves, 8g licorice, 6g mint, 10g reed roots, 10g honeysuckle, 8g perilla. Boil and drink 1 dose per day.
In addition, mulberry leaves are not just picked and boiled to have effect, but need to be chosen carefully. The leaves need to be young, chopped, dried in the shade and then combined with other herbs to make water to drink every day.
In more severe cases, when chickenpox grows a lot, the color is dark purple, the area around the pox is dark red, high fever, red face, blisters on the oral mucosa... the prescription needs to add the following ingredients: 8g red peony, 8g roasted gardenia fruit, 16g dandelion, 12g kinh nhan, 12g te sinh dia, 8g forsythia. Boil and drink one dose a day, divided into 3 times a day. Drink hot 30 minutes after eating.
Dr. Truong Huu Khanh, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases - Neurology (Children's Hospital 1, Ho Chi Minh City) said that chickenpox appears all year round, with the number of children infected in winter and spring often being higher. The disease does not have severe symptoms other than blisters, but can also cause serious complications from skin infections where blisters appear to sepsis, encephalitis, and even death.
During the treatment process, doctors have encountered many cases of children with complications due to many parents arbitrarily using oriental medicine of unknown origin or passing on to each other treatment experiences by boiling leaves for drinking, bathing, especially with stubble.According to Dr. Huu Khanh, this is unscientific because it can easily cause skin infections in children and make the disease worse.
In addition, many people believe that when exposed to water or wind, the disease will become worse. Or conversely, some people think that covering up the "emergent" pimples will cure the disease quickly. All of this is not true. When the body sweats a lot and is not cleaned properly, it causes itching, easily infects the blisters and leaves scars. Children can also have a higher fever because the body heat cannot escape.