Mystery fever in kids stumps doctors in Hyderabad, gives parents a headache

HYDERABAD: At a time when the city is seeing a rise in fevers of all origins, especially among children, doctors in the city are now grappling with the problem of unexplained fevers. Even though patients report moderate to high fever, all possible tests run on them for detecting the cause of the fever turn out to be normal.
“Currently, around 20-25% of the cases of fever we are getting are of this type.These patients test negative for all the current causes of fever, including dengue, respiratory syncytial virus (SRV), influenza and even RTPCR tests for Covid-19 as well as the antibodies tests.
We have seen such cases in children aged between 1 year and 5 years over the last one-and-half month,” said Dr Parag Shankarrao Dekate, clinical director, paediatrics and head of paediatric intensive care, KIMS Cuddles, adding that in majority of these cases, the patient’s condition improves in six to seven days.
However, the patient’s condition does not improve in all cases, and this has led to parents running from pillar to post. “My 17-year-old son has been sick for the last 20 days and we have changed three doctors so far. All possible tests were run including complete blood picture, dengue, malaria, typhoid and even Covid-19 but everything seems normal. However, his fever, which comes in bouts twice a day, continues to be around 102 to 103 degrees and does not subside,” said Mihirunissa Begum of Begumpet, adding that several such cases are being reported in their area where unexplained fevers last for more than 10 to 12 days.
Unexplained fevers have also been reported at the Apollo Cradle and Children’s Hospital, confirmed officials. “When we say viral fevers, we don’t pursue the diagnosis of the virus as there are hundreds of viruses and these fevers usually get better within a week.
The unexplained fevers are the ones which get prolonged, are not getting better and all the tests that are run turn out to be negative,” said Dr Satish Ghanta, paediatric intensivist, Little Stars Children’s Hospital.
While some hospitals have run all tests to rule out any known causes including Covid-19 and dengue, the state-run hospitals do not run these tests but have reported these cases as well. Nearly 30% of the current fever cases landing up at the Niloufer Hospital fall in this category, said officials.