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©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 16, 2021; 9(2): 296-307
Published online Jan 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i2.296
Published online Jan 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i2.296
Effect of a fever in viral infections — the ‘Goldilocks’ phenomenon?
Lucas Belon, Edward Walter, Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford GU2 7XX, Surrey, United Kingdom
Peter Skidmore, Rohan Mehra, Department of General Medicine, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford GU2 7XX, Surrey, United Kingdom
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the background research and drafting of this work; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors declares a conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Edward Walter, BM, BSc, FRCA, FFICM, MRCP, Attending Doctor, Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Egerton Road, Guildford GU2 7XX, Surrey, United Kingdom. ewalter@nhs.net
Received: June 11, 2020
Peer-review started: June 11, 2020
First decision: November 14, 2020
Revised: November 23, 2020
Accepted: December 10, 2020
Article in press: December 10, 2020
Published online: January 16, 2021
Processing time: 210 Days and 18.1 Hours
Peer-review started: June 11, 2020
First decision: November 14, 2020
Revised: November 23, 2020
Accepted: December 10, 2020
Article in press: December 10, 2020
Published online: January 16, 2021
Processing time: 210 Days and 18.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Acute infections, including those due to coronavirus and other viruses, often stimulate a febrile response. A mild fever appears to improve outcome; it appears to diminish viral replication by several mechanisms, and improve host defence mechanisms against the pathogen. At higher temperatures, the outcome worsens, suggesting that the risks of fever on the host outweigh the benefit. A non-infective fever is associated with a worse outcome at lower temperatures. This paper discusses why a mild fever may be better than no, or very high fever.