What is Fever?
Fever is one infection, which rings an alarm bell in people of all age groups. Especially so in parents whose child has a fever. For us as doctors it is not important to just treat the fever. Fever is only the body's reaction and not the main infection per se. Our aim is to investigate & find out where is the origin of the fever. Fever is always an out come of some internal infection & unless that is dealt with the fever does not subside.
Causes:
- Infectious disease, e.g., influenza, HIV, malaria, infectious mononucleosis, or gastroenteritis
- Various skin inflammations, e.g., boils, or abscess
- Immunological diseases, e.g., lupus erythematosis, sarcoidosis, inflammatory bowel diseases, Kawasaki disease
- Tissue destruction, which can occur in hemolysis, surgery, infarction, crush syndrome, rhabdomyolysis, cerebral hemorrhage, etc.
- Reaction to incompatible blood products
- Cancers, most commonly kidney cancer and leukemia and lymphomas
- Metabolic disorders, e.g., gout or porphyria
- Thrombo-embolic processes, e.g., pulmonary embolism or deep venous thrombosis
Symptoms:
- lethargy
- depression
- anorexia
- sleepiness
- hyperalgesia
- inability to concentrate.
