If a person has a headache and a fever, then we can talk about the presence of a wide variety of diseases. Fever means that the body is actively fighting the disease. It includes body temperature above 37 degrees. It can rise due to heat stroke, or it can be a sign of a serious illness. This article lists the most common causes.
Fever symptoms
During a fever, a person may feel:
- Sluggishness.
- Chills.
- Headache.
- Weakness.
- Loss of appetite.
- Dry lips.
- Sweating.
Infectious causes
Cold
The disease is similar in symptoms to the flu, but is additionally accompanied by a runny nose and cough. A person has a headache and a temperature of 37 degrees and above.
Meningitis
The disease manifests itself in damage to brain tissue. The cause of meningitis isinfection. The main symptoms of the disease: high fever and a headache, radiating to the back, neck and limbs, weakness, rarely nausea and red rashes on the skin. If the listed symptoms are accompanied by confusion and impaired speech, you should immediately call an ambulance. Meningitis can lead to deafness or blindness if not treated promptly.
Leptospirosis
The cause of illness is infection. Under its influence, a person has a headache and a temperature of up to 39 degrees. Signs of the disease are nausea, lethargy, vomiting, flushing of the face and neck, and herpes on the lips. With leptospirosis, the liver and spleen are enlarged. On the 3-4th day, the skin becomes yellowish with rashes.
Flu
In case of illness, the head hurts and the temperature lasts for 2-3 days, as well as drowsiness, weakness, depressed mood and pain in the joints and eyes. To get rid of the disease, you need to eliminate the virus. The incubation period of the disease is from ten hours to five days. Headache felt in the forehead.
Encephalitis
Encephalitis affects the brain, developing an inflammatory process in it. The disease is expressed in such symptoms: weakness and fever, headache in the frontal part, pressure changes that appear from the first days after infection. Gradually, nausea, vomiting and insomnia will join these signs, sometimes coordination of movements is disturbed.
Sinusitis
Common disease lasts about 2-3 weeks. The disease occurs as a consequence of SARS, a sign of whichis swelling of the nasal mucosa. Symptoms of sinusitis: chills, runny nose, sneezing, headache, weakness, fever, nasal congestion, which is expressed in pressure on the eyes and ears, and nausea. The patient's skin may develop a rash and become irritated by bright lights and loud noises.
Urinary tract infections
The joint appearance of a headache with fever may be a consequence of polynephritis, prostatitis, cystitis and other similar diseases. Diseases are also accompanied by a violation of urination, pain in the abdomen, secretions from the genitals. In the chronic form, a headache and a temperature of 37 degrees, with an exacerbation - 38 degrees.
Noncommunicable diseases
Hypertension
The main symptom of the disease is a bursting, throbbing headache, which is felt in the back of the head. Symptoms may appear in the morning with a feeling of heaviness in the frontal part and general weakness in the body, also the temperature is accompanied by dizziness and an increase in heart beats. If these symptoms appear, you should immediately consult a doctor and lower the pressure with a special drug.
Thermoneurosis
Not a disease, but a reaction of the body. The cause of this condition is a spasm in the vessels that are on the skin and lead to a violation of thermoregulation. Thermoneurosis is a condition of the body in which the head hurts and the temperature is up to 38 degrees. It appears after an illness or during stress,fatigue and physical injury. The condition is also characterized by fatigue, headache, arrhythmia, pallor, lethargy, muscle pain. Thermoneurosis, unlike normal temperature, is not relieved by aspirin.
Intoxication
The condition is characterized by malfunctions in the body under the influence of toxic substances that enter it. A person has a fever and a headache, nausea, muscle pain, diarrhea. Vomiting helps cleanse the body and improve the condition of the patient.
Acute surgical pathology
Increased body temperature and headache can be the result of diseases such as appendicitis, intestinal obstruction, pancreatitis, cholecystitis, abscess, thrombosis of the vessels of the legs, furuncle. Although the main symptoms are abdominal pain and signs of failure in the functioning of a certain organ, but at the initial stage, only subfebrile temperature and headache may be present.
Long time span
Fever and headache can last for several days. To determine the cause of this condition, you need to undergo an examination in the hospital. Sometimes the listed symptoms can be normal, but mostly they talk about the disease. These include such ailments.
Tumors
Weakness often appears, headache and temperature up to 38 degrees, loss of appetite, rapid weight loss, weakness. These symptoms may indicate the presence of leukemia, tumors in various organs, vascular disorders invertebrobasilar arteries.
Tuberculosis
The most common cause of these symptoms. With tuberculosis, sweating also increases, body weight decreases, systematic coughing is observed, and the presence of bloody impurities in the sputum.
Chronic infection
These include diseases that do not provoke a strong response from the immune system - HIV, AIDS, rheumatic fever, chronic diseases of the ENT organs, toxoplasmosis and others.
High temperature: what to do?
Fever is the body's normal reaction to illness, so it fights the virus. You should not rush to take antipyretics as soon as the thermometer showed thirty-eight degrees. To begin with, you can drink hot tea with lemon and honey, cover yourself with a warm blanket. But if this method did not give a result and the fever continues to grow, then medicines cannot be dispensed with. High temperatures adversely affect the functioning of the cardiovascular system.
It is important to remember not to take a lot of aspirin as it impairs kidney function. Doctors also recommend eating a large amount of products containing salicylic acid during an indisposition. It is part of the jam from sea buckthorn, raspberries, prunes, and is also found in the pulp of pineapple. To avoid dehydration, you need to drink plenty of water. You can drink juices, tea, fruit drinks and other liquids. If drops of sweat appear on the forehead, then this indicates a drop in temperature. In order for it not to return, the cause should be eliminated.
Heat can be removed by folk methods or drugs. For example, rub the body with vodka or cologne, then get dressed and cover yourself with a blanket. A cold compress on the forehead or ice in the armpits, or rubbing with vinegar diluted with water, also helps well. The room in which the patient is located should be regularly ventilated and wet cleaned. Drinking is given every fifteen to twenty minutes, several sips. From medicines, mainly ibuprofen or paracetamol are used. Aspirin is prescribed with caution because it impairs blood clotting and can cause bleeding. The drug should not be used by people with gastrointestinal diseases - it irritates the mucous membrane and causes an exacerbation of the disease. After the fever has passed, you should consult a doctor who will prescribe further treatment.
What you need to know about headache medications?
Discomfort is treated with ibuprofen or paracetamol based drugs as they are considered the safest. If the headache was due to high blood pressure, then analgesics will not work. Pain medications cannot be combined with each other. Simultaneous intake of several drugs does not increase efficiency, but increases the likelihood of ulcerative lesions of the stomach and duodenum, as well as other negative consequences. You should not get carried away with taking even over-the-counter painkillers - the maximum period for taking them should not exceed five days. For frequent headaches, seedoctor.
Alcohol should not be consumed with medications, as this combination leads to disorders in the kidneys and liver. Drugs containing phenobarbital and codeine should not be used by drivers. In the event of an emergency, these components can be regarded as narcotic drugs in the blood test that is taken in such cases.
Causes of sickness in children
If a child has a fever and a headache, parents need to identify the cause of the disease as soon as possible. Successful treatment depends on the correct diagnosis. The reasons can be, as in an adult: colds, infections, poisoning. Also, this symptom may be the result of a fall, which often happens in childhood. A concussion may also be accompanied by vomiting and loss of consciousness. We need to talk to the baby and find out if he hit his head recently.
Sunstroke or overheating can occur not only in the hot season, but also in warm clothes, when in a stuffy room. In addition to the main symptoms, weakness, nausea and lethargy are added.
What should I do if my child has a headache and a fever?
First you need to identify the disease by other symptoms, for this you should contact your pediatrician. Given the age of the child, folk or medicines are used to combat the temperature. Not recommendedbring down the heat to 38.5 degrees, especially during the flu or SARS. The body itself fights bacteria during this period. If the temperature exceeded 38.5 degrees, then you need to use medications containing ibuprofen or paracetamol, in parallel, you can give headache pills. It is necessary to observe the dosage corresponding to the age and weight of the child.
If a child has a headache without fever
Baby malaise may be due to overwork or overheating, but if a migraine occurs frequently and abruptly, it can be a symptom of a dangerous disease. Children often complain of headaches, they are in second place after abdominal pain. They meet both teenagers and kids. In infants, a headache manifests itself in the form of increased excitability, tearfulness, regurgitation with a fountain, as well as problems with falling asleep, a two-year-old child may talk about fatigue. According to statistics, up to 30% of boys and 40% of girls suffer from migraines.
In children, headaches are divided into two groups:
- Organic - arising from voluminous or infectious processes in the head. These include: encephalitis, tumors, meningitis.
- Functional - appear due to impaired blood supply to the brain under the influence of diseases of internal organs, overwork, or due to other factors that irritate pain receptors in the vessels of the head.
The most common causes of headaches in children are migraines, infections of a general nature and the nervous system, less often they occur due to mental disorders, traumatic brain injuries, as well asneuroses. The main sources of malaise are: stress, emotional overstrain, lack of sleep, physical overwork, malnutrition, and allergies. Children feel pressure from inside the skull, but at the same time they do not lose activity and efficiency, they do not have nausea and fever, the pain disappears after rest. But if the discomfort does not stop after the restoration of strength, you should consult a pediatrician or neurologist.
When do you need emergency help?
Ambulance is called if these symptoms appear:
- Severe headache and fever, as well as nausea, convulsions, loss of consciousness or feeling of sluggishness in the limbs.
- Temperature and pain occur after a fall or head injury, accompanied by otitis media or sinusitis.
- Nosebleeds appear.
- Pain in the morning, after rest or physical activity.
If the listed symptoms are absent, you can not worry, give the child an anesthetic "Nurofen", "Paracetamol" in the appropriate dosage for the age and put him to bed. Do not give adult tablets ("Paracetamol", "Citramon", "Analgin") to children under 12 years of age. Such drugs negatively affect the condition of the stomach and blood of the baby. To avoid the recurrence of symptoms, you need to reduce the physical and mental stress and streamline the diet and sleep. Proper distribution of the load throughout the day will help the baby avoid overwork.
So, the causes of fever andheadaches can be very diverse and therefore require a mandatory visit to the hospital. If a child has symptoms, it is important to learn about possible injuries that could trigger these signs. If a person has a headache and a high temperature, then it is urgent to knock it down. You can use both folk remedies and medications based on ibuprofen or paracetamol. In both cases, the age and possible allergic reactions of the patient must be taken into account.
