Employees who take anti-fever medication so they can soldier on through the
flu may be putting their colleagues at risk because it makes them more
infectious, scientists have found.
"No-one likes to feel miserable, but it turns out that our comfort might
be at the cost of infecting others.
"Because fever can actually help lower the amount of virus in a sick person's body and reduce the chance of transmitting disease to others, taking drugs that reduce fever can increase transmission.
"We've discovered that this increase has significant effects when we scale up to the level of the whole population."
He added: "People often take - or give their kids - fever-reducing drugs so they can go to work or school.
"They may think the risk of infecting others is lower because the fever is lower. In fact, the opposite may be true: the ill people may give off more virus because fever has been reduced."
The researchers assembled information from many sources, including experiments on human volunteers and on ferrets which are the best animal model for human influenza.
They then used a mathematical model to compute how the increase in the amount of virus given off by a single person taking fever-reducing drugs would increase the overall number of cases in a typical year, or in a year when a new strain of influenza caused a flu pandemic.
Results showed that suppressing the fever increases the number of annual cases by around five per cent, corresponding to more than 1,000 additional deaths from flu in a typical year across North America.
Doctor David Price, professor and chair of family medicine for McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, said: "This research is important because it will help us understand how better to curb the spread of influenza."
"Fever is a defence mechanism to protect ourselves and others. Fever-reducing medication should only be taken to take the edge off the discomfort, not to allow people to go out into the community when they should still stay home.
"People are often advised to take fever-reducing drugs and medical texts state that doing so is harmless. This view needs to change."
The findings echo previous research that has shown how the widespread use of medication can have unwanted effects on the transmission of disease.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"Because fever can actually help lower the amount of virus in a sick person's body and reduce the chance of transmitting disease to others, taking drugs that reduce fever can increase transmission.
"We've discovered that this increase has significant effects when we scale up to the level of the whole population."
He added: "People often take - or give their kids - fever-reducing drugs so they can go to work or school.
"They may think the risk of infecting others is lower because the fever is lower. In fact, the opposite may be true: the ill people may give off more virus because fever has been reduced."
The researchers assembled information from many sources, including experiments on human volunteers and on ferrets which are the best animal model for human influenza.
They then used a mathematical model to compute how the increase in the amount of virus given off by a single person taking fever-reducing drugs would increase the overall number of cases in a typical year, or in a year when a new strain of influenza caused a flu pandemic.
Results showed that suppressing the fever increases the number of annual cases by around five per cent, corresponding to more than 1,000 additional deaths from flu in a typical year across North America.
Doctor David Price, professor and chair of family medicine for McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, said: "This research is important because it will help us understand how better to curb the spread of influenza."
"Fever is a defence mechanism to protect ourselves and others. Fever-reducing medication should only be taken to take the edge off the discomfort, not to allow people to go out into the community when they should still stay home.
"People are often advised to take fever-reducing drugs and medical texts state that doing so is harmless. This view needs to change."
The findings echo previous research that has shown how the widespread use of medication can have unwanted effects on the transmission of disease.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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