Causes of prolonged fever in children

When children are young, their bodies are fragile and their immune systems are not yet perfect, so they are easily infected by viruses and get sick, which makes their parents very worried. One of the most common illnesses in children is a fever that won't go away. Such a long-term fever has a huge impact on the child's body. Here I will introduce to parents and friends the reasons for long-term fever in children. I hope everyone can always pay attention to their children's health.

Prolonged fever means fever lasting for more than 2 weeks. In general, a child's armpit temperature over 37.4°C can be considered a fever. According to the fluctuation of body temperature, fever types can be divided into prolonged fever, remittent fever, intermittent fever and irregular fever.

The causes of long-term fever in children are more complicated. Generally speaking, the main causes are infectious factors and non-infectious factors. Infection is the most common cause of fever in children, which can be caused by viruses, bacteria, mycoplasma, rickettsia, spirochetes, parasites, etc. Among them, the diseases that may cause long-term high fever mainly include sepsis, pneumonia, empyema, bacterial endocarditis, pyelonephritis, infectious mononucleosis, etc. There are also some infectious diseases, such as typhoid, paratyphoid, malaria, kala-azar, schistosomiasis, etc., which can also cause long-term high fever. Diseases that may cause long-term low-grade fever mainly include tuberculosis, chronic urinary tract infection, chronic enteritis, chronic sinusitis, etc.

Some non-infectious diseases can also cause long-term fever in children. Connective tissue diseases such as rheumatic fever, rheumatoid disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, allergic reactions caused by certain drugs or biological agents, foreign tissues, leukemia or other malignant tumors and other tissue and cell necrosis can all cause long-term high or low fever. In addition, some central nervous system diseases such as craniocerebral injury, brain tumors, subarachnoid hemorrhage, etc. can cause abnormal regulation of the body temperature center and lead to long-term fever. Status epilepticus and hyperthyroidism can cause the body to produce excessive heat and cause fever. Extensive dermatitis, congenital ectodermal dysplasia, etc. can cause fever due to reduced heat dissipation in the body.

Regardless of the cause of the fever, if the cause cannot be controlled or eliminated in time, it will cause long-term fever. Long-term fever can affect the body's various regulatory functions, thereby causing or aggravating other diseases. Therefore, for children with long-term fever, we must carefully analyze and judge the cause of the fever based on the fever type, accompanying symptoms and signs, combined with the corresponding laboratory and other physical and chemical examination results, and then provide targeted treatment.

The above gives parents a detailed introduction to the reasons for long-term fever in children. In fact, the most important thing is that when the child has a fever, it is best not to use medicine casually. The most correct approach is to go to the hospital for examination as soon as possible, because long-term fever has a huge impact on the child's body, and may even damage the child's brain cells, causing irreversible harm to the child.