Population-level effects of suppressing fever

David J D Earn1, Paul W Andrews, Benjamin M Bolker

  • 1Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McMaster University, , Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, M. G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, , Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, , Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Department of Biology, McMaster University, , Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Summary

Reducing fever with medication may increase infectious disease spread. Widespread use of antipyretics for fever could lead to more illness and deaths from infections like influenza.

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