What is the difference between a new coronavirus induced fever and a common fever?

In 2019, an unprecedented virus, a novel coronavirus COVID-19, emerged.The virus is highly infectious and most patients have symptoms similar to colds after infection, such as fever, fatigue, and dry cough.Now go to many public places, someone will give you a temperature measurement, through the body temperature to preliminarily exclude febrile patients.Also fever, what is the difference between fever caused by the novel coronavirus COVID-19 and other fever?

What causes fever?

The normal basal body temperature of the human body is about 37.0 C, which generally does not exceed 37.3 C, and the change of body temperature within a day generally does not exceed 1 C.Our so-called fever refers to the temperature higher than the normal basal body temperature. There are three reasons for the fever:

1. The most common cause is infectious diseases, including infections of the upper respiratory tract and urinary system, which we know, there will be urinary frequency, urgency, urinary pain, gastrointestinal tract infections, including abdominal pain, diarrhea and so on. In addition, there will be infections like Mycoplasma infection, tuberculosis infection and so on, which will cause fever.Fever caused by the novel coronavirus COVID-19 belongs to infectious fever.

2. A few non-infectious diseases can also cause fever, such as tumors, autoimmune diseases, cerebrovascular diseases (such as cerebral hemorrhage), high fever, heat stroke and acute necrotizing pancreatitis, etc.There are also diseases (such as hyperthyroidism) that can cause an increase in the basal metabolic rate of the human body, which can occasionally cause a varying degree of temperature rise.Some drugs (such as sulfonamides, beta-lactam antibiotics, amphotericin, etc.) can cause drug fever and allergic reactions due to individual physical differences.

3. In addition, some normal physiological conditions will also have the manifestation of elevated body temperature, such as strenuous exercise, eating, and women during ovulation or dry pregnancy.

What is the difference between the fever of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 and others?

Fever, fatigue and dry cough are the main manifestations of most patients with novel coronavirus COVID-19 infection.A few patients had symptoms such as nasal obstruction, runny nose, sore throat and diarrhea.Mild patients only show low fever, mild fatigue, etc. In the course of critical patients, moderate to low fever, or even no obvious fever.

In fact, in terms of fever alone, fever caused by novel coronavirus COVID-19 infection is not significantly different from fever caused by other influenza viruses or bacterial infections.Therefore, fever cannot be used as a diagnosis of a new type of coronavirus infection. Fever is only a preliminary screening. If a diagnosis is confirmed, it also needs to be combined with epidemiological history and relevant laboratory tests.

For confirmed patients, in the late stage of disease development, do not think that patients with novel coronavirus COVID-19 pneumonia do not have fever or low fever must represent a milder condition. In some cases, when the condition is critical, some patients'body temperature will not rise and fall back, moderate to low fever or even no obvious fever, but other symptoms will aggravate.At the same time, when the patient's condition is critical, there will also be extreme fatigue, dizziness, feeling dull, sleepiness or restlessness and other symptoms of mental changes.