WHAT IS A FEVER?
A fever is a condition which itself is not a disease but actually a symptom of an underlying disease or body pathology more commonly an infection.
Fever is generally regarded as one of the natural body defence mechanisms to fight against infection. This adaptive response of the body is really important to make out if something goes wrong in the body.
Fever also means high temperature . It is measured in degree Celsius or Fahrenheit scales. A thermometer is used to measure or record our fever accurately. Fever can be documented as well as undocumented depending on the patient’s knowledge and access to the appropriate measuring device.
TYPES OF FEVER:
Usually it can be of two types: low-grade and high-grade fevers. The kind of fever is really important to establish the causes behind it.
CAUSES OF FEVER:
There are variable degrees of causes that give rise to this condition. There can be two major causes of fever:
- Infectious causes
- Non-infectious causes
DANGER SIGNS OR COMPLICATIONS OF FEVER:
It is very important to keep the temperature of your body under control. Severe rises in temperature may give rise to hypothermia, while a decrease may lead to hypothermic state. Both are harmful conditions and should be brought under control as soon as diagnosed.
Usually you will feel lethargic and drowsy. Generalized weakness can be marked well depending on the severity of condition. It may have some associated factors such as sore throat, flu, ear pain, discharge from an opening or pain and cramps.
Majority of times, fever denotes an inflammatory condition or an infectious state. This can be true in the case of tonsillitis, meningitis, encephalitis, peritonitis, orchitis etc.
The other times it is helpful in diagnosing neoplastic conditions that can be a blessing if encountered in an early stage. Non-infectious causes usually include abuse of illicit drugs or drugs of abuse such as cocaine, heroine and narcotics. A stroke may also give rise to persistent low grade fever.
ADEQUATE MEDICAL TREATMENT:
Antipyretics are substances that belong to the family of drugs especially used to tackle higrade fevers. Usually paracetamol and other NSAIDS are considered safe for use during a fever.
It totally depends on your age, physical ability and the actual underlying cause of the increased temperature that helps the doctor decide for you either you need to take or not.
You may not need to take any special treatment for your condition if the doctor feels you are healthy enough to handle the inflammatory response on your own. A healthy body has intact adaptive response that senses anchange in the normal environment and generates white blood cells in adequate number to combat the situation bringing forward the inflammatory response. This results in a mild to moderate increase in body temperature.
However intense, severe fevers should not go unnoticed and should be immediately catered to. This may indicate undergoing infections that may be serious or even a hidden tumor or malignant growth.
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