Section 3　Respective Pathogenic Features of Different Warm Pathogens

1.Wind-Heat Pathogen

This warm pathogen appears in spring and winter seasons, and can cause wind-warm disease and winter-warm disease, which is another name of wind-warm disease occurring in the winter.

It has the following three pathogenic features.

First, it invades into the exterior body and the lung mostly through the mouth-nose and skin with hairs, and thus results in wind-heat exterior syndrome in its initial stage, belonging to a typical Wei phase syndrome.

Second, it easily impairs Yin with producing an internal dryness symptoms and signs, since wind and heat both pertain to Yang pathogen, thus are very liable to consume the body fluid in the lung and stomach.

Third, the warm disease caused by wind-heat pathogen is marked with acute occurrence,quick transference and a shorter course of the disease. For example, wind-heat pathogen attacks the exterior and lung at the beginning of the disease, and then leading to Wei phase syndrome, but it may deep invade into the pericardium in a short time, or rapid recovery in case of correct treatment in time.

2.Summer-Heat Pathogen

It appears in summer season with very hot weather, and can cause summer-warm disease.

It has the following four pathogenic features：

First, it damages the human body suddenly and has an intense Qi phase of Yangming without evidently Wei phase syndrome.

Second, it is characterized by cruel heat, and easily consumes body fluid and Qi by excessive sweating, so often causes the manifestations of deficiency of both Yin fluid and Qi.

Third, it can intrude into the pericardium and heart directly and induces the liver wind syndrome easily, and thus gives rise to coma with delirium, convulsion and rigid limbs.

Fourth, it is usually mixed with dampness pathogen and then obstructs Qi flow, so presenting dizziness with a heavy head, stuffy chest, nausea or vomiting, loss of appetite and unsmooth urination and defecation.

3.Damp-Heat Pathogen

It appears in the four seasons, but mainly in the later summer（Zhangxia 长夏）with hot and moist weather, and can cause damp-warm disease and summer-damp disease.

It has the following three pathogenic features.

First, it chiefly invades into the spleen and stomach because of pertaining both to the earth in the five elements, and basically leads to the symptoms and signs of damp with heat in the middle Jiao.

Second, it always obstructs Qi flow and clear Yang to go upward and outward when damp is predominant over heat, and thus manifests as aversion to cold, unsurfaced fever（Shenre Buyang 身热不扬），and heavy head and body due to the defensive Qi obstructed, and dull expression, sleepiness, stuffy chest, epigastric and abdominal distention, and dysuria due to Qi obstruction of the relevant Zangfu-organs.

Third, it is marked with a slow onset and development, a lingering course of the disease, and easy recurrence, because dampness pathogen is stagnant and viscous in nature.

4.Dryness-Heat Pathogen

It appears only in autumn season and can cause autumn-dryness disease. In the early autumn,the pathogenic dryness frequently combines with heat pathogen and results in a warm-dryness disease, while in the later autumn, the pathogenic dryness combines with cold pathogen and results in a cool-dryness disease, that doesn’t belong to warm disease.

It has the following three pathogenic features.

First, it invades into the lung initially, and then takes the lung as its main location, presenting the manifestations of dryness-heat attacking the lung with mild wind-heat exterior syndrome.

Second, it always impairs the body fluid in the lung, and leads to various externally dry symptoms, such as dry mouth, throat, lips, nose, eyes and skin and hair.

Third, it may have a liability to convert into fire upward, so manifests as reddish and sore throat, swollen gums, congested eyes, nasal bleeding and tinnitus.

5.Warm-Heat Pathogen

It comes from a cold pathogen hidden in the interior, then transformed into a heat pathogen and causing a latent pathogen warm disease currently. This is based on the saying in Neijing: “A cold pathogen invaded in the interior last winter becomes a warm-heat pathogen and causes a warm disease in spring.” So it can be seen as a warm pathogen and lead to spring warm disease.

It has the following three pathogenic features：

First, It hides in the interior body before occurrence of the disease, and there is a sudden intense interior heat syndrome in the Qi phase or Ying phase at the beginning of spring-warm disease, marked by high fever, severe thirst, vexation, scanty-yellow-hot urine, or scattered rashes and coma with delirium.

Second, it transfers and deteriorates very easily and quickly, for example, it easily transfers from the Qi phase into Ying or Xue phase, or deep intrudes into the pericardium, or transfers from Ying phase outward to Qi phase, or stirs the liver wind.

Third, it is liable to impair Yin fluid seriously because of its intense heat nature and deep location in the body, thus leads to severe Yin deficiency of the liver-kidney and further stirring up liver wind due to Yin exhaustion in the later stage.

6.Warm-Toxin Pathogen

It appears in any season, but mostly seen in winter and spring, and can cause some special warm diseases, enlarged head warm disease and scarlet fever are two commonly seen warmtoxin diseases at present. Here, “warm-toxin” means the warm pathogen has developed into toxin, which tends to aggregate in a local body where there are redden, hot, painful swellings.

It has the following three pathogenic features.

First, it mainly intrudes into the lung and stomach in both Qi and blood systems, so marked with high fever, thirst, flushed face, sore and swollen throat and skin eruptions.

Second, it is characterized by extensively spreading out along the meridians, and thus inward intrudes into the Zangfu-organs and outward attacks the skin, muscles, tendons and the nine orifices in the body, and manifested as cough, dyspnea, coma, convulsion, dense eruptions,deafness, and constipation.

Third, it is liable to aggregates in a certain location of the body, where the reddish, hot, painful swellings, or with suppuration and erosion may happen. For instance, swelling happens in the throat, cheek or testicle.

7.Pestilential Pathogen

It is a kind of the strongest infectious pathogen, and can cause warm pestilence, which includes a lot of acute, infectious and febrile diseases.

It has the following four pathogenic features：

First, it possesses strong infectivity and epidemic, so the same kind of pestilence occurs in a crowd of people, who live in the same family, village or city, or more extensive region.

Second, it enters the human body from nose and mouth, or by skin touching, thus it very easily communicates each other among the closely lived and contacted persons.

Third, it has a fierce pathogenicity, so has a higher morbidity and death rate, abrupt onset,swift development and deterioration.

Fourth, different kinds of pestilential pathogens may have different chief symptoms and pathological locations. For example, type B of epidemic encephalitis takes high fever,unconsciousness and convulsion as its main symptoms, and is located basically in the liver,heart and brain; and severe acute respiratory syndrome（SARS 传染性非典型肺炎）takes fever, bodily pain and cough with less sputum as its main symptoms and is located in the lung,spleen and heart.