Infectious Diseases
Dengue Fever
Most dengue is survived at home. The danger opens on days three to seven, usually as the fever falls. These are the warning signs that mean hospital now.
28 Aug 202614 min read
Antipyretic
Pronounced an-ti-py-RET-ik
Also known as Fever medicine, Bukhar ki dawa
An antipyretic is a medicine that brings a fever down, paracetamol being the commonest. It treats the discomfort of a fever rather than whatever is causing it, and a fever coming down is not evidence that the illness has been cured.
A fever is the body resetting its own thermostat upward in response to infection or . An antipyretic works on that thermostat rather than on the germ: paracetamol and the group both do it, by blocking the chemical signal that raised the setting. Neither shortens the illness. What they do is make a person comfortable enough to drink, eat and sleep, which in a child with a fever is worth a great deal on its own.
Using them safely
- Paracetamol is the first choice for most fevers, including in pregnancy and in small children. The adult dose is 500 mg to 1 g every 4 to 6 hours, and no more than 4 g in any 24 hours from all sources combined.
- Count every product. Many cold and flu sachets, night-time syrups and combination painkillers already contain paracetamol. Overdose here is almost always accidental, and it damages the liver quietly, with few symptoms for a day or two.
- Children are dosed by weight, not by age — usually 10 to 15 mg per kilogram per dose. Use the syringe or cup the syrup came with rather than a kitchen spoon.
- Ibuprofen is an alternative with food, but avoid it in dehydration, in dengue or any illness with bleeding or a low count, in stomach ulcer, in kidney disease and in the last trimester of pregnancy.
- Aspirin is not for fever in anyone under 16, because of its rare but serious association with Reye's syndrome.
Where this comes up
Pediatrics
Fever in Children: What to Do Tonight and When to Go to Hospital
A fever is the body fighting an infection. Most settle at home. These are the signs that mean go now, how to dose paracetamol safely, and what not to do.
28 Aug 202611 min read
Medicines & Safety
Paracetamol: How Much Is Safe, and the Liver Risk
The safe adult maximum is 4 g in 24 hours. Above that it damages the liver, and for the first day or two an overdose causes almost no symptoms at all.
28 Aug 202611 min read
General Medicine
Fever in Adults: What It Means and When to Worry
Most fevers settle within three days. In Pakistan a fever that lasts longer needs testing for dengue, typhoid or malaria — and a few need help the same hour.
27 Aug 20269 min read
Related terms
- NSAIDNon-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, Anti-inflammatory painkillerNSAIDs are painkillers that also reduce inflammation and fever — ibuprofen, diclofenac, naproxen and aspirin among them. They work well but carry real risks to the stomach, the kidneys and the heart.
- InflammationSwelling, SozishInflammation is the body's response to injury or infection: blood flow increases, fluid and immune cells arrive, and the area becomes red, warm, swollen and painful. It is a repair process, and it becomes a problem only when it persists.
- Side effectAdverse effect, Adverse drug reactionA side effect is any effect of a medicine other than the one it was given for. Some are trivial and settle, some are the reason a medicine has to be stopped.
- DehydrationFluid depletion, Paani ki kamiDehydration is a shortage of water and salts in the body, from losing more than is taken in through diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, heat or simply not drinking. In children and older people it becomes dangerous quickly and is the main cause of death from ordinary diarrhoea.