Fever-reducing drugs could actually increase the number of influenza cases by tens of thousands.
These drugs include "ibuprofen, acetaminophen and acetylsalicylic acid," a McMaster University news release reported.
"When they have flu, people often take medication that reduces their fever. No-one likes to feel miserable, but it turns out that our comfort might be at the cost of infecting others," lead author David Earn, an investigator with the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) and professor of mathematics at McMaster University, said in the news release.
"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 said.
Parents who administer fever-reducers to their children should also take this research seriously.
"People often take -- or give their kids -- fever-reducing drugs so they can go to work or school," Earn said. "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," Earn said.
The team looked at experiments conducted on both humans and ferrets (which process influenza similarly to humans) to make their findings. They also employed a mathematical model to assess how one patient using fever reducers could increase the number of influence the number of influenza cases that year.
The researchers concluded fever suppression increases the number of influenza cases by about five percent (about 1,000 cases) across North America.
"This research is important because it will help us understand how better to curb the spread of influenza," David Price, professor and chair of family medicine for McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, said in the news release.
"As always, Mother Nature knows best. 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," Price said.
