ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of a 4-month-old female who is presented with pyrexia. The child has pyrexia of unknown origin. She should be adequately assessed in the Emergency Department and managed accordingly. Fever is a very common presentation in the Emergency Department, and in the immunocompetent child is usually caused by a simple infection with common sources being the chest, urine, ear, nose or throat. The patient should be considered for a septic screen including blood tests, urinalysis and culture. Children with pyrexia of unknown origin should be referred to the paediatric team for admission, observation and further investigation and treatment as necessary. After taking the relevant cultures for microbiolical analysis, the use of early parenteral antibiotic treatment should be considered in unwell or toxic children, and most hospitals will have specific antibiotic protocols for empiric treatment stratified by age.
