When a child has a fever, many parents cannot sleep through the night for several days. At the same time, I am worried that the old saying, “If you have a fever, your hair will be damaged and your skin will be damaged,” may be true. Is that really so?
Ye Sheng, director of the comprehensive ICU at the Children’s Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang University Medical School, explained, “This is the issue that parents most often raise in outpatient clinics, but in fact, everyone is confused about the causal relationship between fever and organ damage.” Fever itself is a defensive response to invading pathogens in the body and is not a direct cause of pen or brain damage. Pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, and mycoplasma that cause fever are the true ‘main culprits.’
When pathogens such as influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae invade the human body, on the one hand, body temperature rises, and on the other hand, they can directly invade organs such as the lungs and brain, causing tissue damage. From a medical perspective, fever, lung damage, and brain damage are in a parallel relationship and are all the result of infection with pathogens, not organ damage caused by an increase in body temperature.
In particular, Yeopseong emphasized that if the body temperature is below 41 degrees during fever, there is no need for parents to be overly anxious because it does not cause direct organic damage to organs such as the lungs and brain. When a child has a fever, pay more attention to the pathogen infection itself, observe key signs such as the child’s mental state and respiratory condition in a timely manner, and if necessary, go to the hospital to clarify the cause and receive customized treatment.
