Fever-reducing drugs don't affect speed of children's recovery: study

In this Feb. 16, 2011 photo, Carlos Cervantes, 3, is photographed from his bed at Children's Hospital Central California in Madera, Calif. This was the third visit for Carlos who was diagnosed with Valley fever. (AP Photo/The Fresno Bee, Eric Paul Zamora) (Eric Paul Zamora)

A review of past research finds that fever-reducing drugs have no effect on the speed of children's recovery from an infection, contrary to the fears of some doctors and parents.

Researchers have debated for decades whether lowering a sick child's fever helps the recovery process or interferes with the body's ability to fight the infection.

Some previous research has shown that giving children fever-reducing "antipyretic" medications, such as acetaminophen, after vaccinations interfered with their immune responses to the vaccines, for example.

"There's no evidence that antipyretics slow down recovery," said Alison While, a professor of community nursing at King's College London and senior author of the new study.

Nevertheless, While and her coauthor caution in their report in the Journal of Pediatrics, their findings don't mean they encourage parents to use the medications at the first sign of fever either.

"Many many parents are using antipyretics with small children whenever they get a slightly raised temperature. This is madness," While told Reuters Health.

Because of the ongoing debate and the fact that few researchers have examined the health benefits or harms in reducing a fever during illness, While and colleague Edward Purssell combed the literature.

They found only six clinical studies that examined the effect of using anti-fever medications on a total of 657 sick children.

Three of the studies focused on children infected with malaria and the rest included fevers that came from chickenpox and other viral infections.

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Fever-reducing drugs don't affect speed of children's recovery: study