A fever without signs of a cold is a serious cause for concern

"I have a temperature," we say when the thermometer rises above +37°C... And we say it incorrectly, because our body always has an indicator of thermal state. And the aforementioned common phrase is pronounced when this indicator exceeds the norm.

By the way, the body temperature of a healthy person can change during the day - from +35.5°C to +37.4°C. In addition, the normal indicator of +36.5°C is obtained only when measuring the body temperature in the armpit, if you measure the temperature in the mouth, then on the scale you will see +37°C, and if you measure in the ear or rectally - then all +37.5°C. So a temperature of +37.2°C without signs of a cold, and even more so a temperature of +37°C without signs of a cold, as a rule, does not cause much concern.

However, any increase in body temperature, including temperature without signs of a cold, is a protective response of the human body to an infection, which can lead to one disease or another. Therefore, doctors say that an increase in temperature to +38°C indicates that the body has entered into a fight with the infection and has begun to produce protective antibodies, immune system cells, phagocytes, and interferon.

If a high temperature without signs of a cold persists for a long time, then the person feels unwell: the load on the heart and lungs increases significantly, as energy consumption and tissues' need for oxygen and nutrition increase. And in this case, only a doctor can help.

Causes of fever without signs of a cold

An increase in temperature or fever is observed in almost all acute infectious diseases, as well as during exacerbations of certain chronic diseases. And in the absence of catarrhal symptoms, doctors can establish the cause of the patient's high body temperature by isolating the pathogen either directly from the local source of infection or from the blood.

It is much more difficult to determine the cause of a fever without signs of a cold if the disease arose as a result of the effect of opportunistic microbes (bacteria, fungi, mycoplasma) on the body - against the background of a decrease in general or local immunity. Then it is necessary to conduct a detailed laboratory study not only of blood, but also of urine, bile, sputum and mucus.

In clinical practice, cases of persistent - for three or more weeks - increase in temperature without signs of a cold or any other symptoms (with readings above +38°C) are called fever of unknown origin.

The "simplest" case of a temperature of +39°C without signs of a cold (in terms of diagnosis, of course) is its appearance after a person's trip to hot foreign countries (especially to Africa and Asia), where he was bitten by a mosquito infected with parasites of the Plasmodium species. That is, in addition to souvenirs from the trip, a person brings malaria. The first sign of this dangerous disease is a high temperature, which is accompanied by a headache, chills and vomiting. According to WHO, every year from 350 million to 500 million people worldwide become infected with malaria.

Causes of fever without signs of a cold may be associated with diseases such as:

• inflammatory diseases of bacterial origin: endocarditis, pyelonephritis, osteomyelitis, pneumonia, tonsillitis, adnexitis, sinusitis, meningitis, prostatitis, inflammation of the uterine appendages, sepsis;
• infectious diseases: tuberculosis, typhus and relapsing fever, brucellosis, Lyme disease, HIV infection;
• diseases of viral, parasitic or fungal etiology: malaria, infectious mononucleosis, candidiasis, toxoplasmosis, syphilis;
• oncological diseases: leukemia, lymphoma, tumors of the lungs or bronchi, kidneys, liver, stomach (with or without metastases);
• systemic inflammations, including autoimmune ones: polyarthritis, rheumatic arthritis, rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic polymyalgia, allergic vasculitis, nodular periarthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Crohn's disease;
• endocrine diseases: thyrotoxicosis.

An increase in temperature readings can be caused by changes in the hormonal sphere. For example, during a normal menstrual cycle, women often have a temperature of +37-37.2°C without signs of a cold. In addition, women complain of unexpected sharp increases in temperature during early menopause.

Temperature without signs of a cold, the so-called subfebrile fever, often accompanies anemia - a low level of hemoglobin in the blood. Emotional stress, that is, the release of an increased amount of adrenaline into the blood, can also raise body temperature and cause adrenaline hyperthermia.

As experts note, a sudden, sharp increase in temperature can be caused by taking medications, including antibiotics, sulfonamides, barbiturates, anesthetics, psychostimulants, antidepressants, salicylates, and some diuretics.

In quite rare cases, the causes of fever without signs of a cold are rooted in diseases of the hypothalamus itself.

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Temperature without signs of a cold: fever or hyperthermia?

The regulation of human body temperature (thermoregulation of the body) occurs at the reflex level, and the hypothalamus, which is part of the diencephalon, is responsible for it. The hypothalamus also controls the work of our entire endocrine and autonomic nervous system, and it is where the centers that regulate body temperature, hunger and thirst, the sleep-wake cycle, and many other important physiological and psychosomatic processes are located.

Special protein substances - pyrogens - participate in increasing body temperature. They are primary (exogenous, i.e. external - in the form of toxins of bacteria and microbes) and secondary (endogenous, i.e. internal, produced by the body itself). When a disease outbreak occurs, primary pyrogens force the cells of our body to produce secondary pyrogens, which transmit impulses to the thermoreceptors of the hypothalamus. And the latter, in turn, begins to adjust the body's temperature homeostasis to mobilize its protective functions. And until the hypothalamus regulates the disturbed balance between heat production (which increases) and heat emission (which decreases), a person suffers from fever.

Temperature without signs of a cold also occurs with hyperthermia, when the hypothalamus does not participate in its increase: it simply did not receive a signal to begin protecting the body from infection. Such an increase in temperature occurs due to a violation of the heat transfer process, for example, with significant physical exertion or as a result of general overheating of a person in hot weather (which we call heat stroke).

Treatment of fever without signs of a cold

So, let us remember that the treatment of temperature without signs of a cold should begin with finding out the true cause of this problem. And for this you should contact doctors - and without delay.

Only a qualified doctor (and often more than one) can answer the question of where your high temperature came from without signs of a cold, and prescribe complex treatment.

If the detected disease turns out to be infectious and inflammatory, then antibiotics will be prescribed. And, for example, in case of fungal lesions, polyene antibiotics, triazole group drugs and a whole range of other medicinal treatments are prescribed.

In general, as you understand, arthritis requires one type of medication, while thyrotoxicosis or, say, syphilis require completely different medications. When the temperature rises without signs of a cold - when this single symptom unites diseases that are so different in etiology - only a qualified doctor can determine which medications should be taken in each specific case. Thus, for detoxification, that is, to reduce the level of toxins in the blood, they resort to intravenous drip administration of special solutions, but only in a clinical setting.

Therefore, treating a fever without signs of a cold is not just taking antipyretic tablets like paracetamol or aspirin. Any doctor will tell you that if the diagnosis has not yet been established, the use of antipyretic drugs can not only prevent the cause of the disease from being identified, but also worsen its course. So a fever without signs of a cold is a really serious cause for concern.