High fever every 2-3 hours when infected with Covid-19, how to handle?

High fever every 2-3 hours, should I use antipyretic in combination?

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tien Dung, former Head of Pediatrics Department (Bach Mai Hospital), said that for more than a month, the condition of children with high fever when infected with Covid-19 very popular.

“Many children have a high fever of 39-40 degrees. But monitoring and consulting for more than a month now, which child has the most fever for 3 days, usually a day later the fever is gone, running and playing around, having a child until day 2, at most 3 days”, said Associate Professor Dung.

Regarding fever-reducing drugs, only paracetamol is allowed, absolutely do not alternate with other drugs, in this case, Ibuprofen.

“Why do we say take only paracetamol and do not alternate. We have talked a lot. When the child has respiratory symptoms we test positive. SARS-CoV-2 then we immediately think of Covid-19. But respiratory diseases have many causes, currently the world has found 28 causes and Covid-19 is just one of them. Recently in Ho Chi Minh City, there was a case of a child who was positive for SARS-CoV-2 but also tested positive for dengue fever, which is a very dangerous case of being positive for 2 diseases at the same time. Meanwhile, between Covid-19 and dengue fever, the treatment is completely different. If Covid-19 we have to focus on treatment in the lungs and do not receive fluids, while with dengue fever, we have to focus on giving a lot of fluids.

Similarly, when fever is caused by dengue fever, it is absolutely contraindicated to use Ibuprofen because this drug has an anticoagulant effect that makes bleeding caused by dengue fever uncontrollable, especially gastrointestinal bleeding. Therefore, if we alternately use two antipyretics, paracetamol and Ibuprofen, dengue fever can be much worse (cannot exclude children with Covid-19 or dengue fever on the first day of symptoms). .

How to handle?

Assoc. Prof Dung noted, it must be 38.5 degrees or higher to reduce fever and need to measure the temperature in the armpit. The measurement of temperature in the forehead area is only a screening value, measured in the armpit reflects the central temperature more, thereby more standardizing the temperature to have an accurate treatment.

From 4-6 hours to drink once. The preferred drug, with the fewest side effects for children, is still paracetamol with a dose of 15/kg body weight every 4-6 hours when the child has a fever of 38.5 degrees or more.

When taking the right medicine, mothers also need to be patient because everything takes time. With paracetamol, after taking it for about an hour, it will start to work and reduce fever gradually.

Apply warm water. Mothers should do this if they feel less anxious. Other methods including warm bath, medical alcohol wipe, cold compress are not recommended.

Drink lots of water, preferably oresol. When a child has a high fever, drinking a lot of water, including filtered water, juice, oresol water, is very helpful in reducing fever. Let the child drink continuously, drinking little by little will help absorb oresol better. Do not wait until your child starts to have a fever again to drink water, but always remind your child to drink little by little.

When children have a high fever, they should wear less clothes and have an airy room. Absolutely do not cover and warm the child because when the fever is high, it will cause peripheral vasoconstriction, so it feels cold, but in fact, the temperature in the body is hot, up to 40 – 41 degrees Celsius, this time the more you cover it. The blanket is colder.

When taking fever-reducing drugs, drinking a lot of water, the child has a fever again, but the time of re-fever is gradually stretched, parents can rest assured to continue monitoring. If the child is tired and lethargic, the child should go to the doctor to be diagnosed with the correct cause.