“What are the symptoms of viral fever in kids?”
My son is 7 years old. I want to know what are the symptoms of viral fever in kids?
3 Answers
Hello,
"What are the symptoms of viral fever in kids?" An interesting question. Doctors have been looking for decades for clinical symptoms to reliably distinguish viral fever from bacterial fever in order to know how to advise families and whether to treat with antibiotics or not. Treating viral illness with antibiotics is useless and fraught with risks. Diagnosing viral illness in kids from symptoms alone is highly dependent on professional judgment and experience. Sometimes a laboratory test is needed. For example, a sore throat might be caused by any number of viruses, but a bacterial sore throat - a Strep throat - requires a throat culture for a certain diagnosis. A throat culture involves swabbing the back of the throat with a Q-tip and sending the specimen off to a laboratory or doing a rapid Strep assay at the time of the pain visit. A Strep throat requires treatment with an antibiotic. A viral throat infection does not.
Having pointed out the value of judgement, there are symptoms associated more with viral causes than with bacterial germs. Illnesses with fever associated with cough, runny nose, weepy eyes and are more likely viral than bacterial. Viral fevers usually last no longer than 3-4 days. Needless to say, if a parent has a question about a child's fever, the child's doctor should be called. More information about fever in children can be obtained by visiting the family website of the American Academy of Paediatrics, www.healhychildren.org.
Regards,
Dr. T
"What are the symptoms of viral fever in kids?" An interesting question. Doctors have been looking for decades for clinical symptoms to reliably distinguish viral fever from bacterial fever in order to know how to advise families and whether to treat with antibiotics or not. Treating viral illness with antibiotics is useless and fraught with risks. Diagnosing viral illness in kids from symptoms alone is highly dependent on professional judgment and experience. Sometimes a laboratory test is needed. For example, a sore throat might be caused by any number of viruses, but a bacterial sore throat - a Strep throat - requires a throat culture for a certain diagnosis. A throat culture involves swabbing the back of the throat with a Q-tip and sending the specimen off to a laboratory or doing a rapid Strep assay at the time of the pain visit. A Strep throat requires treatment with an antibiotic. A viral throat infection does not.
Having pointed out the value of judgement, there are symptoms associated more with viral causes than with bacterial germs. Illnesses with fever associated with cough, runny nose, weepy eyes and are more likely viral than bacterial. Viral fevers usually last no longer than 3-4 days. Needless to say, if a parent has a question about a child's fever, the child's doctor should be called. More information about fever in children can be obtained by visiting the family website of the American Academy of Paediatrics, www.healhychildren.org.
Regards,
Dr. T
Fever is a nonspecific response to some stress on the body -- but to identify the CAUSE of the fever (bacterial, viral, stress, inflammation) requires medical inquiry and examination. While the majority of fevers in young children are caused by viral infections, there is no reliable way to use JUST the fever to identify its cause. A fever is a core (oral, axillary, rectal) temperature > 100.4oF (38oC).
Shelley C. Springer, MD, MBA, MSc, JD, FAAP
Shelley C. Springer, MD, MBA, MSc, JD, FAAP
Viral fevers can be a spectrum of illnesses. Mild viral infections can last 24-72 hours where some viral fevers persist over 10 days and need to be seen by a pediatrician. Both viral and bacterial infections can have symptoms such as fever, rash, congestion and upper respiratory illnesses. If the fever or symptoms are short lived and resolve on its own it is likely viral since antibiotics are not needed and the body’s immune system fights the illness on its own.
