Fight strategy
Question: When I have been ill with a high temperature, my wife has tried to
persuade me to take paracetamol to reduce my temperature. However, I prefer to
take nothing because I have heard that the body increases its temperature to
fight the infection. Which of us is right?
Answer: You are probably right. There is considerable experimental evidence
indicating that fever is an adaptive response that facilitates host resistance
and slows the growth of the pathogen. The fact that fever evolved hundreds of
millions of years ago (it is a common response to infection in vertebrates, as…
