What is Fever? What Causes Fever?
Everyone will have a fever over the course of their life. Most often when they are sick, fevers are a common medical sign, and one of the most common medical symptoms. It signifies that the body temperature of an individual has gone above the normal range of 97.7 – 99.5. As a person’s temperature increases, they will feel cold despite the fact that their temperature is increasing. Once it has increased to a new set-point, the person will feel warmth. Rapid increases can cause sweating and feeling hot.
Types of Fever
Continuous Fever: The temperature remains above normal throughout the day and does not change by more than one degree for 24 hours.
Intermittent Fever: The fever is only present for a part of the day.
Remittent Fever: The temperature is normal through the day, but fluctuates more than one degree in 24 hours.
Pel-Ebstein Fever: This is a fever associated with Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Causes of Fever
A fever can be caused by literally hundreds of different medical symptoms. It is essentially defined as when the body’s temperature increases due to the fighting of an infection, virus or illness.
The symptoms of fever are usually associated with some sort of sickness type of behaviour. This behaviour can include lethargy, anorexia, depression, sleepiness, inability to concentrate and hyperalgesia.
Complications
Fevers, in some cases, can be extremely serious. A fever’s complications can include severe dehydration, hallucinations and even fever-induced seizures. The seizures are most common in children under the age of five years old.
If a child has a seizure because of the fever, you must lay the child on their side or stomach and remove any sharp objects that are near the child. In addition, you need to loosen any tight clothing and hold your child to prevent injury. Under no circumstances should you attempt to put anything in the child’s mouth or try to stop the seizure. If the seizure lasts longer than 10 minutes, call for an ambulance.
Generally, fevers are a normal part of being sick and will pass with time. If the fever is over 104 degrees, then you should get medical attention as soon as possible.