Fever and the risk of death in hospitalised children

Fever (or hyperthermia) is a clinical sign accompanying several illnesses and manifests as dysfunction in the body’s physiological mechanisms of temperature regulation. When caused by an infective microorganism (such as bacterial, viral, fungal or protozoal infection), the fever will usually be accompanied by an elevated white blood cell count. Blood cultures are the gold-standard for the diagnosis of bacterial infection. However, these are not readily available in most rural healthcare settings in low-income countries and when available, they take about 48 hours to detect any microorganisms in the culture media and are prone to contamination.