Fever Can Be Your Friend

With all the current frenzy over the atypical H1N1 pandemic influenza virus, it is common to see articles and advertising for medication which implies that fever is our enemy. In fact when we have an infection, fever is our friend. Fever is not the same as illness.

Fever is the symptom of the illness. When you have an infection, your body produces a fever to reduce the ability of the virus or bacteria to survive and multiply in your body. Fever is part of the process of activating your immune system to fight the infection.

Important things to know

3 groups require special medical attention:

• Babies don’t always have a fever especially under 6 months and all unusual behavior (being off feeding, more irritable, less alert) needs to be seen by the baby’s doctor.
• The elderly may also not produce a fever because of deterioration of their immune system and special care with change in habits need to be evaluated differently in this group also.
• Children under 5 years of age may get febrile seizures (convulsions caused by a fever) if the fever rises rapidly. A mild fever is still important to help fight infection in this group.

Mild fever, even if accompanied by aching and feeling unwell, should be tolerated. We should not dose up with medication and carry on with our activities. This exposes others to our illness and makes it hard for our immune system to work at its best.

Take your grandmother’s advice: feed a cold and starve a fever (but take a lot of fluids) and GO TO BED and sweat it out.

If your fever is approaching 104 degrees Farenheit or 40 degrees Celsius, then try to cool down with plenty of fluids. Work with the fever to keep it from becoming excessive, even if you have to take medication for it. But remember the purpose is NOT to reduce the fever to normal. That just encourages the viruses to multiply in your body and makes you a better host for the infection.