ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses both iatrogenic and occupational causes of fever because of areas of etiologic overlap. The most prominent such area involves health care and laboratory workers, whose occupation subjects them to communicable diseases. Administration of medication, especially antimicrobials, frequently causes fever. A list of agents most commonly associated with drug fever is provided, though the clinician is safest in assuming that any medication may cause fever. Patients whose fever results from a drug reaction tend to lack signs of systemic toxicity, though they may demonstrate rigors. An additional mechanism for production of fever by medication administration includes the pharmacologic action of the drug itself. Radiation therapy produces several syndromes which are often accompanied by fever. Irradiation-induced pneumonitis is enhanced when cytotoxic drugs are given during the period of irradiation or after it is completed. Thus, a patient receiving cytotoxic medication and irradiation, who develops pulmonary infiltrates and fever, has a complicated differential diagnosis.
