Question
A 1.5-year-old child has a fever of 38 degrees, accompanied by a small amount of runny nose, a low white blood cell count, and hemoglobin and red blood cell sedimentation levels lower than normal. The child had received fever-reducing treatment in the early stages of the fever, but the effect was not good. The doctor suspects that it may be caused by a viral infection. How should it be handled?
Answer
The standard principle for handling a fever below 38 degrees is to avoid using fever-reducing medication or injecting fever-reducing drugs, but instead, provide the child with ample water and check if the environmental temperature is too high. In hot summer months, infants have poor thermoregulation abilities and are prone to fever due to excessively high surrounding environmental temperatures. Measures such as lowering the environmental temperature, using fans, providing cool drinks, or taking a warm bath can help lower the temperature. If the child’s fever exceeds 38.5 degrees, it should be immediately confirmed by a doctor whether it is caused by a viral or bacterial infection, and appropriate treatment methods should be chosen based on the type of infection. Viral infections usually require antiviral drugs (such as ribavirin), while bacterial infections require antibiotics (such as cephalosporins). It is not advisable to rush to reduce the fever but rather to find the root cause of the fever.