What should you know about bad fever?

Fever is the body’s response to illness and may come with chills, sweating, headache, body aches, tiredness, or reduced appetite. The cause may be a respiratory infection, a skin infection, or another condition. Fever can occur with acute bronchitis, bronchiolitis, chickenpox, croup, COVID-19, or a common cold, but a fever alone cannot identify the cause. Age, pregnancy, long-term illness, and immune health affect how quickly advice is needed.

Rest, drink fluids regularly, and wear light clothing in a comfortable room. Check how the person is behaving and drinking, not only the temperature reading. Follow the label or a clinician’s advice for any fever medicine, and never give a child medicine intended for another person. Keep someone with fever away from close contact when a contagious illness is possible, and wash hands often. Do not use cold baths or alcohol rubs.

Seek urgent help for trouble breathing, confusion, fainting, a seizure, a stiff neck, a new widespread rash, severe weakness, or inability to keep fluids down. Prompt assessment is needed when the person is very young, pregnant, frail, immunocompromised, or has a serious long-term condition. Contact a clinician if fever persists, returns after improving, or is accompanied by a worsening local symptom such as painful skin redness or a harsh barking cough.

Ask what cause is most plausible from the pattern of symptoms, whether testing is useful, and which changes require urgent review. Share the temperature readings, timing, medicines taken, travel or exposure history, and the person’s ability to drink and urinate.