Definition
A controlled increase of body temperature, commonly as part of an inflammatory response to pathogens.
Introduction
Fever represents one of a selection of “sickness behaviors” that occur in response to pathogens that have infiltrated the body (Harden et al. 2015). It was itself originally considered a disease, though now has long been recognized as a defense mechanism and an aspect of the immune system. However, the degree to which fever is beneficial or detrimental to the host is still widely disputed (Hasday et al. 2000). Accordingly, the treatment of fever is just as controversial, even after being practiced for thousands of years (Earn et al. 2014).
Matthew Kluger presented some of the early evidence for the benefits of fever in fighting disease. Kluger et al. (1975) gave evidence that lizards injected with Aeromonas hydrophila(a bacterium) were more likely to survive when their body temperature was elevated. As such, the increase in heat...
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References
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Davenhill, N.A. (2016). Fever. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2984-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2984-1
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
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