A subfebrile temperature in medical practice is a temperature between 37 and 38 degrees Celsius, provided that it lasts for a fairly long time - from two weeks to several years. At the same time, fever is the only complaint of the patient, other symptoms are not observed.
The temperature 37 can constantly hold for such a long time for various reasons. Most often, such an indefinite symptom signals a serious illness in the body. Subfebrile conditions of infectious and non-infectious origin are distinguished.
Such problems with the body, in the first place, suggest thoughts of infection. First of all, the temperature of 37, constantly kept for a long time, causes doctors to think about tuberculosis, so they try to exclude it in the first place. To do this, they immediately begin to check the patient’s history, looking for possible contacts with carriers of the disease, precedents for tuberculosis regardless of the result, recent diseases in general.
Chronic toxoplasmosis in 90% of cases occurs with a constant temperature above 37 degrees. Chronic brucellosis is accompanied by fever, in most cases severe subfebrile condition. Also, temperature 37 is constantly accompanied by acute rheumatic fever in the second degree of activity of the rheumatic process.
There are also pleasant moments: sometimes after an infectious disease, a post-viral asthenia syndrome may occur, expressed by the same constant temperature above 37 degrees, lasting from two to six months. At the same time, the appearance of such things after typhoid fever signals that the disease is not completely cured, and measures should be taken.
Non-infectious subfebrile condition is most often caused by some physiological causes or psycho-vegetative disorders. Less commonly, somatic pathologies, such as, for example, iron deficiency anemia or thyrotoxicosis, can become a cause. With the latter, nervousness, emotional lability, sweating, palpitations, weight loss are also noted. Diagnosing this disease can be quite simple by checking the level of thyroid-stimulating hormone in the blood.
Among the physiological reasons, the temperature 37, constantly displayed on the thermometer, can be explained by emotional and physical stress, being in a hot room. In women, a similar symptom can occur in the second half of the menstrual cycle or in the early stages of pregnancy.
Of the psycho-vegetative reasons, it is necessary to distinguish the syndrome of autonomic dystonia, vegetoneurosis, thermoneurosis. Such causes of prolonged elevated temperature occupy a third of the total number of precedents. In such cases, the low-grade fever can last for two to three years.
Often, prolonged subfebrile condition occurs in children. A constant temperature of 37 in a child is not at all a sign of illness, although it makes worried caring parents worry. It often happens that inexperienced doctors, having failed to properly understand the causes of fever, begin to treat children for colds and infections that they do not have. This can lead to quite unpleasant consequences.
If the child has a constant temperature of 37, this may be a consequence of some features of the thermoregulation system, that is, the body just wants to reduce heat loss, which, in turn, can be caused by the effects of a recently experienced cold or flu, etc.
In order to save a child from this, you need to introduce some rules. Firstly, in no case do not stuff it with pills. It won’t get any better. Enter a reasonable regime of the day, make sure that the child actively moves, spends a lot of time with peers. Do not try to wrap it warmer than necessary. And the most effective method will be classic hardening.