Fever:  How our immune system works.
(POA=Pituitary gland; AH=Hypothalamus)

Fever can be quite concerning.  Although many believe that a fever itself is harmful, there is no degree of fever that leads to problems.  Malignant hyperthermia (temperatures greater than 105 degrees orally or 106 degrees rectally) is an uncontrolled response that needs quick attention for the cause, not the degree of temperature elevation.  Only an occasional child may have problems with a fever, but this is not due to the degree of elevation of the temperature.  It seems any given child may or may not have febrile seizures with an illness!  Febrile seizures are not related to the degree of the fever, but probably a factor of the illness itself or their young immune response to it.  The reason to treat a fever is mostly for symptomatic relief.  Simply said, we feel badly when we have a fever.

A fever is a function of our immune system.  It goes up as our immunity works to defend us.  It may be a result of infection (bacterial, viral, fungal, or other), a drug reaction, an organ failure, a disease process, excessive stress, injury, or malfunction of our hypothalamus (the temperature set point for our body).  The focus of concern for a fever is to find the source.  Once found, treatment of the reason for the fever will help more than anything else. 

Of most importance in fever management is to limit the use of antibiotics to those who we have good evidence of no bacterial infections.  Please see the "Antibiotics" section on this web site for more information about this and the Get Smart Campaign from the CDC.

A fever chart can be printed from the Patient Information section of this web site.