Acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI) and influenza are among the topical problems of healthcare. The children’s morbidity index in preschool educational institutions in Krasnoselsky district of St. Petersburg in 2008–2014 varied from 1359.6 to 1768.5 per 1000 children attending these institutions. In general educational schools the morbidity index in the aforesaid period were 422.6–521.6 (p 0.001). From 49.3 to 55.4% of children were vaccinated against influenza; from 3600 to 4700 children annually stayed unimmunized due to medical contraindications and parents’ refusals from prophylactic immunization. The research objective is clinical-epidemiological substantiation of effectiveness of application of Echinacea botanical medicine to reduce the ARVI morbidity and the rate of complications after the disease among children attending educational institutions. As a result of the research it was established that the ARVI morbidity index in the group of the children who received the Echinacea preparation was 76.8; in the comparison group it was 94.2 per 100 people (p 0.01; RR = 0.80; CI = 0.7–0.9). The rate of complications (bronchitis, otitis, adenoiditis, pneumonia, sinusitis) among the children who received the preparation was 2–4.8 times lower.