[Traveller]

Originally Posted by Skybird

This is important. Take note of it! About fever, Covid-19 and NSAIDs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuWo5lmWuZI

Interesting. Thanks for sharing, Skybird. Regardless of what the German and Irish media is claiming, it looks like it may not have been fake news after all. Here are a couple of good articles on the topic:

Fevers aren’t always a bad sign; you may even have heard that mild fevers are a good indication that your immune system is doing its job. But fevers aren’t just a byproduct of our immune response.

In fact, it’s the other way around: an elevated body temperature triggers cellular mechanisms that ensure the immune system takes appropriate action against the offending virus or bacteria.

So say researchers hailing from two academic institutions in the United Kingdom: the University of Warwick in Coventry and the University of Manchester.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/art...naling-pathway

Evidence supports a beneficial effect of an elevated temperature as well as a possible adverse effect of fever on the clinical outcome of an infection. Most mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish experience an elevated core temperature during an infection, suggesting that fever is part of an adaptive host defense response. The metabolically expensive increase in body temperature that accompanies an infection seems unlikely to have evolved unless fever benefits the host. Perhaps some physiological alterations that occur during a febrile response may be responsible for increased resistance to infection.

Certain observations suggest a beneficial relationship between elevated temperature and outcome of an infection. Microbes may replicate less efficiently at an elevated temperature than at a normal temperature. Certain immune responses such as leukocyte migration may be enhanced at higher temperatures. However, treatment of fever is based on the assumption that fever has a harmful effect and that reducing an elevated temperature will be beneficial.

Available evidence does not provide a clear understanding as to whether fever impairs or enhances the host’s immune response to infection.

https://www.aappublications.org/news...snapshot050319

A recent study in the journal Pediatrics shows that 91 percent of parents surveyed thought that a fever can cause harmful effects, with 56 percent of caregivers very worried about the potential harm of fevers for their own children. And 89 percent of parents reached for such fever reducers as acetaminophen and ibuprofen before temperatures reached 102 degrees.

Why should any of this matter? Because it is often not necessary -- and may not even be wise -- to be too quick to rush for the medicine cabinet when your child has a fever. "Nothing bad is going to happen if you don't treat the fever," says Dr. Ari Brown, a pediatrician in Austin, Texas, and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). She's also author of Baby 411: Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Baby's First Year (Windsor Peak).

A fever, not surprisingly, indicates that your child is fighting off some kind of infection, such as a simple cold, the flu, or an ear infection. It is not an illness in itself. In fact, a fever may do some good. A study published in the February 2004 Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that children who ran a fever during their first year were less likely to develop allergies later in childhood than children who did not have fever.

More importantly, according to the AAP, a fever can help your child's body fight off infection. Many illness-causing microbes do best at the body's normal temperature. A fever raises the temperature beyond which certain microbes need to reproduce. A fever also kicks your child's immune system into high gear, spurring the rapid production of bug-clobbering white blood cells. A small but growing body of research shows that letting a fever run its course may reduce the length and severity of such illnesses as colds and flu.

As for the concern among parents that fevers can have harmful effects, these instances are very rare. The brain has an internal regulatory mechanism that prevents fevers caused by infections from getting higher than 105 or 106 degrees. Body temperature must get above 108 degrees to cause damage. Temperatures this high are caused only by exceptional circumstances, such as central nervous system disorders or heatstroke.

https://www.parents.com/health/fever/fever-benefits/