PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF POLYHERBAL SIDDHA FORMULATION-NILAVEMBU KUDINEER AGAINST COMMON VIRAL FEVERS INCLUDING DENGUE – A CASE-CONTROL APPROACH

Nilavembu Kudineer, a Siddha Polyherbal formulation, is a decoction concentrate widely used in Siddha Medicine to combat major type(s) of fevers including viral origin such as Dengue. Methodology: Study type: Prospective case-control with Retrospective data collection. Study Setting: National Institute of Siddha – it is a central Government Siddha Hospital, located at Chennai, Tamil Nadu and considered as an apex Institute for Siddha Medicine in India.  Study Subjects: Patients reported at OPD. Inclusion Criteria: Fever patients with clinical symptoms of viral fever and / or Thrombocytopenia as “Cases”. Patients without symptoms of viral fever but age-sex matched with case-subject as “Controls”. A person who has consumed minimum 5 days of Nilavembu Kudineer was considered as Nilavembu consumed person. Exclusion Criteria: Malarial fever, Enteric fever, Filarial fever, Sepsis, Leptospirosis etc. Sample size: 176 cases and 352 controls. Study period: 4 months. Statistical tools: Odds Ratio, Conditional Logistic regression. Results:  The odds of Nilavembu Kudineer consumed persons for developing viral related fever was 0.24 (CI: 0.13 to 0.45) which was statistically significant (p <0.0001). Sex wise analysis reveals the odds of Nilavembu Kudineer consumed female persons for developing viral related fever was 0.47 (CI: 0.22 to 0.99) which was moderately significant (p=0.048). Whereas amongst the male group the odds was only 0.09 (CI:0.02 to 0.29) which was statistically highly significant (p <0.0001). Conclusion:  Consumption of Nilavembu Kudineer as a prophylactic measure prevents significantly the occurrence of Viral fever in all age groups invariably. The reason for low protection in female group could be due to different metabolic / or hormonal conditions during phases of age groups.