Childhood fever

Abstract

Childhood fever is a common symptom, reflective of multiple causes. As the child is often unable to express himself, the physician must rely on parents' observations and the physical examination. The majority of febrile children have non-bacterial upper respiratory tract infection and indiscriminate use of antibiotics is inappropriate, ineffective and leads to drug-resistance such as the emergence of Penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. In this article, we attempt to identify the possible causes of fever by a simple approach using the presence or absence of associated or localising symptoms. Infants less than 3 months constitute a unique group as the fever may be related to perinatal events and as serious bacterial infections can still occur despite unremarkable physical findings. Management of fever needs to take into account the toxicity, immune status and age of the patients as well as the source of the infection. Zealous overprescription of antipyretics needs to be avoided with attention directed to the cause of the fever, the child's capacity to cope with the illness and parental education.