The other day I had this 82yr old lady who was found semiconscious by her family that morning . She had generally looked okay before that day except for being a bit off colour and some poor appetite . As she did not have any fever , most of her family members did not suspect anything serious . They were therefore totally shocked when we told them that their mother was in septic shock ( blood poisoning from infection of the blood ) which had come from a urinary tract infection. This unfortunately is something we see all to frequently among our older patients . Many patients and relatives relate infections to fever and no fever means no infection and therefore delay life saving medical treatment inadvertently . Fever is a body or rather the immune systems response to infection and the degree of fever generally corresponds to the degree of infection but more importantly to the robustness of the persons immune response . A 10 yr old child will generally have high spiking temperatures even if they were having just a minor viral infection , while an elderly person due to weakening immunity may not mount any fever at all even in the presence of life threatening septicaemia . This also applies to persons who have weak immune systems due to other reasons like being on steroids for eg. For these patients , fever is not a sensitive symptom or sign and just sudden onset lethargy or loss appetite may be signs of something more serious. These infections can be treated but the earlier they are treated the better the chance of recovery , bearing in mind bacteria grow exponentially . Many people are worried about heart attacks and cancers but infections remain and important cause of death among the elderly patients . The other thing about getting treatment late for these elderly patients means is a longer hospital stay and the longer an elderly patient stays in a hospital , the higher his or her chances of catching another bacteria from the hospital while getting treatment for the original infection. So remember , esp for elderly patients , early treatment is very important to increase the chance of recovery from bacterial infections . Fever is not a sensitive sign of a serious infection in the elderly and an absence of fever does not exclude possibility of a serious infections . Therefore A high index of suspicion from observing the general well being of your loved ones and if necessary taking them early to ascertain if they are having any serious infections will greatly improve their chance of recovery
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 11:12:45 +0000
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