Function of fever in infectious disease.
The survival of fever in infectious disease is a controversial subject. In favour of the hypothesis that the fever response is one of the defence mechanisms of the host aginst micro-organisms are several data ranging from determinations of optimal growth temperatures of micro-organisms in vitro to in vivo experiments on the course of infections in temperature-manipulated warm-blooded and poikilothermic animals. In spite of this, the beneficial effect of an elevated body temperature has only been documented in a few human infections, and antipyretic drugs are still used in enormous quantities in the fight against the symptom "fever", as if this were the enemy.
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology; D001833:Body Temperature Regulation; D005334:Fever / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007239:Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051379:Mice; D011817:Rabbits