Question

Case study: Q1

Peter Smith, a 19 year old university student, was suffering from influenza and visited his local GP. He said he began to feel unwell two days earlier and his condition had worsened since with an acute onset of a sore throat(pharyngitis). On examination the following observations were made:

Fever of 38.9 degrees C, Runny nose, Sneezing, Enlarged anterior cervical lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy)

Peter’s throat was observed to have the following signs:

Redness, Swollen, Having a patchy covering of yellow-white exudate over his tonsils

The doctor prescribed phenoxymethylpenicillin 500 mg twice per day for ten days.

Question:

What is fever? Explain how Peter’s fever developed.

Answer 1

The mechanism of fever appears to be a defensive reaction by the body against infectious disease. When bacteria or viruses invade the body and cause tissue injury, one of the immune system's responses is to produce pyrogens and these pyrogenes increase body temperature. In normal body temperature infectious agent survive but in high temperature infectious agent not survive.

Doctor prescribed phenoxymethylpenicillin so we can say fever developed by streptococcus bacteria. Because phenoxymethylpenicillin occasionally used for streptococcal pharyngitis, sinusitis, otitis media.