Fever during Covid infection

[hirani]

I understand that there are 2 line of though on febrile response. 1. fever is part of the disease and should  be suppressed at al costs to make the person feel better, 2. fever is the immune systems response to a viral, bacterial or parasitical infection.

f course that is oversimplifying the mechanics of it all. Personally I have found that my family, ( kids of 9 and 10 and wife aged 47) have always recovered quick from viral infections if we let the fever run it's course without intervention. Recently we have all recovered from Covid, with myself still dealing with the lack of smell and taste . . My kids have had temperatures of upto 41 when they had chicken pox and cognitively they have no issues. So why if Covid virus replication slows down at over 38 degrees does the standard advice include anti pyretics.I mean surely that would lead to a worse outcome

[auntiejessi]

I think you might be referring to virus replication outside the body, not inside the body. If that's not the case, do you have a source for that?

There is usually no damage from a high fever, unless it's prolonged. Kids also do better with fevers, and the standards for when a fever might become dangerous is different for children than for adults.

Studies have been split on whether treating a fever prolongs an illness or not, so it's up to you, really. If your child had a temp of up to 41, they had to have been feeling terrible, and at that point, I'd have done something to just relieve their discomfort. Your choice may be different.

[Paxiled]

The fever is your immune response.  You only fight it with acetaminophen, which isn't really all that great at fighting a fever, but you do it because if a fever gets too high it can cause damage to you.  The problem with covid is, the fever for those who get one lasts a long time and can keep coming back, though from accounts it doesn't seem to be all that high numerically.  You fight it so you can rest comfortably, which is also important when trying to get better.  It's really hard to sleep or rest if you're dripping with sweat all the time, so that's why you try and keep the fever at reasonable levels.