Fever therapy

Fever therapy
Using abnormal elevations in body temperature as a tool to treat disease. This was done in the past by deliberately raising the patient's temperature to cause fever. Fever therapy was pioneered by the Austrian neuropsychiatrist Julius Wagner von Jauregg (1857-1940). He inoculated the malarial parasite into patients with dementia paralytica, the third and final stage of syphilis when it affects the nervous system and brain. The patients not surprisingly developed malaria with a high fever and the fever halted the relentless course of the syphilis. In 1927 Wagner von Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of malaria inoculation in the treatment of dementia paralytica." Fever therapy is rarely, if ever, used nowadays. Sometimes, however, a patient with a very high fever from an infection upon recovery from the infection enters into a seemingly impossible remission from an unrelated disease or is even cured of it! (This writer has cared for two such remarkable patients.)

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fever therapy n a treatment of disease by fever induced by various artificial means

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pyretotherapy.

Medical dictionary. 2011.

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  • fever therapy — noun : a treatment of disease by fever induced by various artificial means * * * Med. therapy by means of an artificially induced fever. [1920 25] * * * fever therapy noun Cure by inducement of fever • • • Main Entry: ↑fever …   Useful english dictionary

  • fever therapy — Med. therapy by means of an artificially induced fever. [1920 25] * * * …   Universalium

  • Fever — Although a fever technically is any body temperature above the normal of 98.6 degrees F. (37 degrees C.), in practice a person is usually not considered to have a significant fever until the temperature is above 100.4 degrees F (38 degrees C.).… …   Medical dictionary

  • Therapy, fever — Using abnormal elevations in body temperature as a tool to treat disease. This was done in the past by deliberately raising the patient s temperature to cause fever. Fever therapy was pioneered by the Austrian neuropsychiatrist Julius Wagner von… …   Medical dictionary

  • fever cabinet — noun also fever box : an electric apparatus used in fever therapy to raise the body temperature of a patient above the normal level …   Useful english dictionary

  • Fever of unknown origin — (FUO), pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO) or febris e causa ignota (febris E.C.I.) refers to a condition in which the patient has an elevated temperature but despite investigations by a physician no explanation has been found. [http://www.ppidonline …   Wikipedia

  • Fever — (also known as pyrexia, from the Greek pyretos meaning fire, or a febrile response, from the Latin word febris , meaning fever, and archaically known as ague) is a frequent medical sign that describes an increase in internal body temperature to… …   Wikipedia

  • therapy — 1. The treatment of disease or disorder by any method. SEE ALSO: therapeutics. 2. In psychiatry, and clinical psychology, a short term for psychotherapy. SEE ALSO: psychotherapy …   Medical dictionary

  • Therapy, biological — Treatment to stimulate or restore the ability of the immune (defense) system to fight infection and disease. Biological therapy is thus any form of treatment that uses the body s natural abilities that constitute the immune system to fight… …   Medical dictionary

  • Fever, scarlet — Also called scarlatina, a disease caused by infection with group A streptococcal bacteria that occurs in a small proportion of people with strep throat. The incubation period between contracting strep and the onset of scarlet fever is short,… …   Medical dictionary

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