Defining Fever

Philip A Mackowiak; Frank A Chervenak; Amos Grünebaum

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofab161

Defining Fever

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Mar 31;8(6):ofab161. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab161. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Authors

Philip A Mackowiak¹, Frank A Chervenak², Amos Grünebaum²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Manhasset, New York, USA.

Abstract

Although the term "fever" is used liberally in clinical publications, we provide evidence that it is rarely defined in terms of the minimum temperature used to qualify as a fever, the type of thermometer employed in measuring patients' temperatures, or the site at which temperatures are taken. We maintain that in the absence of such information, the term "fever" is meaningless.

Keywords: COVID-19; Wunderlich; fever; normal range; temperature; thermometer.