Many irrational parents take antipyretics for their children when the temperature is less than 37.8 degree, which is a sign of "fever phobia".
In order to dispel parents' fear of fever, the American Academy of Pediatrics' guidelines on "Fever and Fever Reducing Drugs in Children" emphasize that fever is not a primary pathogen cause, but a physiological mechanism that improve anti-infection. There is no evidence that fever itself worsens the body condition,or damage brain and heart.
Some inflammatory diseases of the blood vessels that attack the heart-like Kawasaki disease-tend to involve the coronary arteries function, which are essentially inflammatory lesion with persistent high fever as a major symptom. Heart problems caused by Kawasaki disease through vasculitis affecting the blood supplying arteries to the heart, not the symptom of fever causing heart failure.
For other children with underlying diseases such as cardiopulmonary insufficiency, fever accelerates metabolism, increases oxygen consumption and cardiac output to make heart work haraer, which may lead to heart failure. However, these increased heart burdens will not have any effect on healthy children.
What parents need to do is not to be blindly afraid and treat ordinary fever normally. Other diseases with a low incidence like Kawasaki disease, must be diagnosed by a specialist, and fever with complications and persistent high fever are treated and sent to a doctor in time to avoid delaying the diagnosis.
