Fever-Reducing Meds Spreading The Flu?

“Contrary to popular belief, fever-reducing medication may inadvertently cause more harm than good.” Researchers from McMaster University have made a recent discovery about fever-reducing drugs. The more people that use these medications, the more widespread a virus could become. How does this work? Drugs including acetaminophen, ibuprofen and acetylsalicylic are used consistently by miserable people to reduce the symptoms that come with having a fever; however, their comfort might actually be infecting others as well. Having a fever is the body’s way of creating a defense against whatever virus is floating around; in fact fever can actually reduce the amount of virus in a sick person, keeping it from spreading. Taking drugs that reduce these fevers are leaving the virus alone long enough for it to become transmittable. The bottom line is, suppressing fevers leads to approximately 5% increase in annual cases, ultimately leading to 1,000 more deaths yearly. Parents who give their children medicine to lower their fever so they can attend school, are giving everyone around them a higher risk at contracting these illnesses; these illnesses are often, but not limited to, influenza. Even though it sounds horrible, next time you are sick, maybe just suffer a little more and not take fever-reducing medicine so you don’t spread your sickness everywhere else.

I thought this article was interesting because growing up, I’ve always been the sick one in the family. I am not sure if my immune system is asleep all the time or what, but I am often coming down with some type of cold. One of the first things I almost always do is take something to reduce my fever. I can see the point; fevers make you feel awful. However, after reading this, it’s no wonder my family nearly always would get whatever I had had! Who knew that by taking medicine, these viruses could somehow manage to become even more transmittable? The author of the article did a nice job of summarizing what exactly the researchers had, and were currently discovering. However, it would’ve been nice to know more details about how exactly the medicine was capable of empowering the viruses. It makes sense now that I think about it, but I think if the author had taken a more scientific approach to the article, it would’ve been a lot more interesting. It also would’ve been beneficial to know more about which viruses this most commonly occurred with; the author did state that influenza was the most common among the death count, but it makes me wonder what other viruses are effected by this. Are all viruses this way? Just some? How do we know? Should we have to suffer through every fever we have, just in case there’s a possibility of transferring it? These are important questions left unanswered; I do hope they publish another article with more information sometime soon. It’s bound to be interesting.

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140122091318.htm

Image: http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.570458