Fever

Also called Undifferentiated fever

Notification class
Syndrome under surveillanceThe sentinel sites count cases every week.
Category
Syndromic

Case definition

A person presenting with a body temperature of ≥38°C/ 100.4°F (or recent history of fever) without an obvious diagnosis or focus of infection. A person may also have headache, retro-orbital pain, myalgia, arthralgia, nausea or vomiting but without any symptoms fitting another syndromic definition.

Special note

Conditions from presumed viral infection should be included in surveillance. If no thermometer is available, a patient who was or complained of being ‘hot to touch’ may be considered to have a fever. These conditions for fever should also be applied to the other fever syndromes below.

No definitive time period is given for recent history of fever. This is left to the discretion of the clinician, who will take into account the disease(s) being queried.

Source: National Surveillance Manual

How it’s monitored

Reported every week by the 78 sentinel sites, as visits for undifferentiated fever by people under 5 and 5 and over, set against the weekly threshold.

The figures

The National Surveillance Unit publishes the latest figures every week.

For health professionals