High fever, what to do?

By Cristiano Antonino On Dec 23, 2022

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Fever is a symptom and a clinical sign since it can be detected with a simple thermometer. It is a reaction to an insult (infectious and non-infectious causes) that our body considers harmful and which may be infectious, inflammatory or of another nature

Fever should never be underestimated, but rather respected for a number of reasons:

it is a sign of something
it serves our body to fight an ongoing process;
it could be the alarm bell of something of which there had been no signal until then.

There is fever and fever

Fever has specific characteristics and is named according to the degree of body temperature:

36.4 to 36.7 degrees centigrade is considered normal;
above 37° and up to 37.4° is considered a fever;
above 37.5° is considered a fever;
above 38° a malignant fever.

Every fever should always be correlated with other clinical signs and symptoms and should never be assessed on its own: it may appear with chills or without chills and may or may not respond to antipyretic therapy.

A significant rise in temperature almost always correlates with an infectious connotation.

When a fever is considered high and when it is dangerous

A fever over 38° that persists for several days is certainly worth monitoring.

It must be said, however, that a high fever is also serious depending on the subject who is affected: a fever that affects a healthy adult may be better tolerated; on the other hand, one that affects a frail elderly person, albeit with a minimal rise, may create more problems.

How to lower a fever

Paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are the two most suitable drugs for bringing the temperature down.

However, they must be taken with care and certainly not abused to avoid possible liver and/or kidney complications.

There are no particularly effective natural remedies other than the use of an ice pack placed on the areas of the body known to be hotter, which helps to bring the temperature down:

on the forehead
between the roots of the thighs
under the armpits.

What to do if it does not go down

In the case of high fever, if the situation does not improve after two to three days, it is a good idea to visit your doctor, especially if there are other associated symptoms.

Even cases of persistent fever should not be underestimated.

The current situation: flu, Covid and colds

Currently, in addition to Covid, there is the Australian flu, which is extremely dominant: an epidemic so widespread, it has not been seen for a long time.

Besides being highly contagious, it causes:

fever;
fatigue;
chills;
bone ache.

As if that were not enough, there are also all those cooling syndromes or environmental adaptation syndromes favoured by current weather conditions and the repeated hot/cold swings to which we are exposed.