One of the most common and telling symptoms of COVID is a high temperature. According to an April 2020 report from the Journal of the American Medical Association, 55.5 percent of COVID patients report experiencing a fever. The Mayo Clinic notes that the body’s normal temperature stays somewhere between 98.6 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit, with the average being 98.6. The Mayo Clinic suggests that once someone’s body temperature hits 100.04 degrees Fahrenheit, that should be considered a fever. However, a new pre-print of a study out of King’s College London, posted on Jan. 28, suggests that body temperature and what constitutes a fever can alter as you age. The researchers point out that “aging affects temperature in health and acute infection.” Based on their findings, the study authors suggest that using a threshold of 99.32 degrees Fahrenheit as a signal of infection for people over 65 is equivalent to 100.04 degrees Fahrenheit in people under 65. And for more up-to-date information delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. The research suggests that COVID cases in people over 65, one of the most at-risk groups, could be missed as temperatures in seniors are often lower than the common 37.8 degrees Celsius (100.04 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold. “Fever is one of the key symptoms of COVID-19, but our results show that cases in older people may be missed because the current temperature threshold is too high for older people,” lead researcher Claire Steves, MD, from King’s College London, said in a statement. “Recognizing 37.4 [99.32 degrees Fahrenheit] as the fever threshold for people over 65 could make a big difference to diagnosing the disease in a timely way, stopping its spread, and getting the right treatment.” To see if your COVID case could be severe, check out If You Have This Common Habit, Your COVID Symptoms Will Be Worse. The Kings College study found that people over the age of 65 who had COVID were less likely to develop a fever of 100.04 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. The chances of older people reaching this temperature dropped by one percent with every year of age. That’s why the researchers concluded that watching closely for even a slight increase in temperature in older adults could be helpful in identifying an infection. To see if your COVID case is one of the new variants, check out If You Have These 4 Symptoms, You Might Have the New COVID Strain.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb The findings from the study support an appeal for the National Early Warning Score (NEWS)—a tool doctors in the U.K. use to “detect clinical deterioration in adult patients”—to revise their guidelines. The adjustment to their fever threshold would encourage doctors to be more prudent in assessing COVID, and other infections, in people over 65. To see what you may be able to take if you get sick, check out This Common Medication Could Save You From Severe COVID, New Study Says.
