Vaccination of children is carried out to protect the fragile body from dangerous infectious diseases. Any virus is many times more dangerous for an infant than for an adult. That is why in the first year of life a child receives several of the most important vaccinations. After the procedure, the baby may develop a high fever. Parents need to know in which cases such a reaction is normal and when they need to urgently contact a pediatrician.
Easy options
As a rule, experts talk about the appearance of mild reactions. “The flu shot can cause side effects that are traditionally called mild. For example, these could be symptoms of a certain ARVI. That is, a person develops weakness, some lethargy, but not severe, and a slight increase in temperature. Rarely, pain may occur at the injection site. Also, complications after a flu shot include the appearance of a bruise at the injection site and minor hemorrhage,” says allergist-immunologist Anna Shulyaeva .
As the immunologist notes, these are such mild symptoms and complications that they cannot even be called side effects. The temperature after a flu shot usually does not rise to high levels - most often doctors say that it remains in subfebrile levels, that is, does not exceed 37 degrees. This temperature after a flu shot does not torment a person and does not cause him any special inconvenience.
“These mild side effects are not even treatable on their own. As a rule, only symptomatic therapy is offered. For example, if pain occurs, you can use painkillers; if you develop a temperature, take antipyretics. However, this all passes quickly - they usually talk about the healing period within the first day after vaccination,” notes Anna Shulyaeva.
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How to deal with high fever
Regardless of what led to an increase in body temperature after immunization to 38 degrees or higher, certain measures must be taken. Do this with the help of the following antipyretic drugs:
- Paracetamol in suppositories . The drug is approved for use by children aged three years and older. The action of Paracetamol is reduced to inhibition of the excitability of the thermoregulation center. After administering the suppository, the temperature drops to 36.6 degrees within 60 minutes, and the resulting effect lasts for four hours. Paracetamol price from 55 rubles;
- Nurofen syrup . Allowed for use by children from three months to 12 years. This is an effective antipyretic drug. It is based on the non-narcotic analgesic ibuprofen. The temperature decreases after taking Nurofen due to a decrease in the concentration of prostaglandins in the thermoregulation center, which is concentrated in the hypothalamus. The cost of the medicine is from 114 rubles;
- Nurofen tablets . The tablets have a composition similar to syrup. Their effect is not only to reduce fever, but also to eliminate pain. The medication is approved for children over 12 years of age and adults. The cost of the drug is from 97 rubles;
- Ibuprofen tablets . This is the simplest and most effective analgesic. The positive effect is achieved 1 hour after administration. Take the drug for pain and high temperature of any origin. Tablets are allowed for children over 12 years of age and adults. The cost is 45 rubles;
- Nimesil powder . This is an effective antipyretic drug based on nimesulide. It also has an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect. Nimesil reduces the temperature for up to 6 hours, and its properties do not deteriorate with prolonged use. The drug is contraindicated for children;
- Coldrex Hotrem . This drug for internal use is recommended for adults and children over 12 years of age. Use 1 sachet every 6-8 hours during the day. To prepare the solution, you need to dilute 1 sachet of the product in 200 ml of boiled warm water. You can add sugar. The maximum course of therapy is 5 days;
- Theraflu . The drugs are prescribed 1 sachet orally. Dissolve the contents of the package in 200 ml of hot water. Take the solution hot every 4-6 hours. The daily dosage is 3 sachets. Take Theraflu for no longer than 5 days;
- Rinzasip . This drug can be used by adults and children over 15 years of age. An interval of 4-6 hours should be maintained between doses. The daily dose is 4 sachets, and treatment lasts about 5 days.
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High fever from vaccination with complications
When a high temperature is observed in combination with additional symptoms such as nausea and headache, you should immediately consult a doctor. In addition to medications, you can reduce your temperature in the following ways:
- Compress . It is necessary to soak a terry towel in mint decoction (20 g per 250 ml of boiling water). Wring out the napkin so that it is damp but not wet. Place the compress on the forehead, temple, and groin folds. Keep it for 10 minutes. This method can be used to lower a child’s temperature;
- Wraps . To obtain the desired result, take a cotton cloth and support it in a water infusion of yarrow, and then apply it to the forehead and hold for 20 minutes;
- Vinegar wraps . Combine vinegar and water in a ratio of 1:5 in a container. Soak a sponge in the solution and apply first to the back and stomach, and then to the legs and arms. Repeat such activities every 2-3 hours. This method is also suitable for small children;
- Drink plenty and frequently . You can drink fruit juice, compote, tea with lemon. This is extremely necessary, since heat transfer occurs during the evaporation of sweat from the skin, as well as during breathing and urination. You need to drink a lot of fluid until the color of your urine changes from deep yellow to light yellow;
- If a child has a fever after a flu shot, there is no need to wrap him up tightly. If the house is warm, then just wear a T-shirt and shorts. But you don’t need to bathe your baby, even if he’s hot.
Influenza vaccination is a process necessary for adults and children to protect the body from the disease or facilitate its progression. After a flu shot, the temperature may rise to 38 degrees, but it lasts no more than 1-2 days. If the temperature is high and additional symptoms occur, this is a reason to consult a doctor. Perhaps the reason for the elevated temperature is not vaccination, but the presence of a hidden disease that needs to be treated.
Severe complications after a flu shot
As the specialist notes, it is much less common to talk about severe complications after a flu shot. “Very rarely—probably one in a million cases—serious side effects such as severe weakness and lethargy to the point of fainting, loss of speech, and wheezing occur. As a rule, we are talking about some kind of anaphylactic reactions, allergies, etc.,” says immunologist Shulyaeva. A reaction to vaccine components may develop.
At the same time, the specialist notes, people are usually aware of their own tendency to develop unexpected complications, so they tend to look for alternative options for protecting themselves from the disease. In other situations, the flu shot does not have any terrible side effects that you should be afraid of.
Elevated temperature lasts for months: how to explain the widespread post-Covid syndrome
The story of the young pianist Victoria Slutskaya, whose temperature after the first vaccination against coronavirus first rose to 39.6, then dropped to 37.5, and has not dropped for six months, was told by the Doctor Peter publication. The girl visited many doctors, even had an appointment with the chief immunologist of St. Petersburg, at the Institute of Children's Infections. But the cause of the failure could not be determined. In addition, the pianist complains of pain in her hands.
The story, however, turned out to be not an isolated one - the victims found each other on social networks and began creating chats dedicated to their misfortune. Mostly they are occupied by young women who have not complained about their health in the past. Victoria from Kemerovo said that she had her first vaccination on July 2, after which her temperature rose to 38.5 and did not go down well. For a week it stayed at 37.6. Now by night the temperature returns to normal, but in the morning it is always above 37. At first, Victoria did not even feel the increase in temperature, but after two weeks she developed severe weakness, her face and hands began to burn. The girl notes that she saw an immunologist, rheumatologist, and infectious disease specialist. Diagnoses are still just guesses. Among them is asthenia, failure of the body’s thermoregulation.
Natalia’s 23-year-old son was vaccinated in Latvia two weeks ago - the temperature does not subside: “Doctors say don’t do anything - it will go away on its own.” And Yuri from Italy says: “The fourth week has passed since the vaccination - 37-37.3 is stable! We came to do the second one, they sent us to donate blood and did not vaccinate us.”
34-year-old Anastasia Makarova writes on social networks that she has already seen 15 doctors - but everyone shrugs. Five months have passed since the vaccination, but she is plagued by low-grade fever, dizziness, and weakness. And chat participant Maria says that since the moment of vaccination, since June 29, the temperature has not dropped below 37.3, and her face and eyes are literally burning: “I passed a bunch of tests, including PCR - everything is normal. Doctors say they have never encountered anything like this.”
The martyrs dubbed their condition “post-vaccine post-Covid.” Meanwhile, some COVID-19 survivors are complaining of similar symptoms. A participant in the “Atypical Coronavirus” group, Dr. Elena Ch., says that her temperature has remained at 37 for more than a year after suffering a coronavirus infection: “We were taught in medical universities that such a temperature can be both a sign of a constant, sluggish inflammatory process, and a symptom vegetative-vascular dystonia. This also happens after the flu, but this virus is so scary. In our country, this condition is called differently - asthenia, fatigued adrenal glands or pale sickness, although in Western medicine such a diagnosis does not exist, and the complex of cumulative symptoms is explained by masked depression or general asthenic syndrome. Whatever you call it, it’s there, and the symptoms don’t go away.”
Maria also encountered similar symptoms: “After Covid, my fever lasts for 8 months. I read that for many people, after illness, the fever goes away within two or three months, I think, what happiness. For me it fluctuates all day - 37.2-37.4, and by night it’s normal. I took blood tests, even did a CT scan again, I don’t know what else to look at.”
“I have had a fever for over a year now; I was sick in June 2020. In the morning and at night it drops to somewhere around 36.8, and during the day it is consistently at least 37-37.2. In addition to the temperature, there is conjunctivitis, urethritis, and the joints began to ache. I’m looking for an infection in the body,” says Irina.
Some patients, however, found the cause of their condition. For example, one woman, as it turned out, had a fever for six months due to the Epstein-Barr virus, which arose against the background of COVID. Another patient was saved... by antidepressants. “The cause of my condition turned out to be psychosomatics,” admits Svetlana. “With antidepressants, the temperature drops to 36.4-36.8, without them it stays at 37.3.”
At the same time, many patients recall that they encountered similar reactions long before the pandemic. “I was sick with something in the late 80s, the low-grade fever lasted for almost a year. And over the years I have seen many people who have this debilitating fever for months, and doctors do not know what to treat and how to treat it,” says Natalya Petrovna.
“I got sick with some kind of virus in the summer of 2021, in the heat, with a temperature of 38.5, with terrible body aches and all the accompanying symptoms,” says Daria. “I was sick for more than a month, and there was a feeling that the virus was still present in the body and had not gone away. And two months later, herpes appeared, which was severe, with fever, wild migraines, dizziness and neuralgia. Until now, the symptoms continue in waves. The temperature lasted for two years. Then I got off."
And here is Tatiana’s story: “I suffered from some kind of ARVI in 1998, I was 23 years old. The low-grade fever after the illness lasted for two years. Now I’m 46, and I’ve lived like this ever since - any cold or ARVI drags a long tail of fever behind it. I can tolerate even low temperatures very poorly, it is terribly exhausting. So this is not a covid problem, this is a problem of viral diseases in principle. In 23 years, I still haven’t been able to figure out whether I have chronic inflammation or a malfunction in thermoregulation.”
MK asked experts what could be causing such long-term temperature reactions. As therapist Ilya Dezhavyan said, they, in principle, may not be related to either vaccination or Covid: “Vaccination, like an infectious disease, can become the starting point for the launch of a chronic infection dormant in the body. I had many such patients before Covid. Of course, you need to understand each situation. In addition, the fact that it is women who complain about an increase in temperature may indicate the peculiarities of their hormonal status. Some women always have a low-grade fever during ovulation.”
Allergist-immunologist Elena Praslova notes that such reactions indicate one or another suppression of the immune system: “If a person has chronic foci of infections, they can be activated against the background of a viral load or immunization. Plus, there is some evidence that post-Covid and post-vaccination syndrome causes low-grade fever in some due to the fact that the nervous system is affected. Temperature may indicate disturbances in the vegetative sphere. In addition, there is a version that in such patients the virus is still present in the body, for example, in the pulmonary structures, but the PCR will be negative. And here you need to examine the antibody titer - immunoglobulin M. If it is negative, then most likely the temperature is not associated with the virus, but if it is positive, most likely the virus still lives somewhere and can give a long temperature reaction.”
— Patients often note that doctors cannot find the reasons for their condition...
— There are very few situations when there is no reason for the temperature. Apparently, they are either looking poorly or looking in the wrong place. If there are no infections, but the temperature remains, it is necessary to examine the vegetative sphere.
- How to study it?
— There is a paracetamol test, the simplest one, which shows the effectiveness of antipyretic drugs. If it lowers the temperature, there is an infectious agent; if it doesn’t reduce it, it means there is a violation of the vegetative system. And we must keep in mind that most often such patients had problems with temperature even before illness or vaccination; they simply did not pay attention. Many people do not feel 37 degrees. Perhaps there was vegetation before the disease, and due to immunosuppression, that is, weakening of the immune system, the symptoms became more pronounced. The virus affects the nervous system, so we often do not smell when we are sick. In any case, you need to work properly with the patient. Everyone has something, yes.
— Can a vaccine weaken the immune system?
- Of course it can - it forces the immune system to produce antibodies in response to the introduction of part of the virus. Many patients experience a bone marrow reaction: white blood cells and, in some, platelets may decrease. And a blood test always shows who is vaccinated and who is not. But this is not the impact of the virus itself, but the consequences of the immune system.
— How long does the weakening of immunity last after vaccination?
— How long it will take is not yet clear, everything is under study. Very little time has passed, and it takes a decent amount of time to understand everything. We will watch and analyze the situation.
— Which specialists should those who are faced with the described problem contact?
— First, to primary care doctors: therapists, general practitioners. They need to understand if there is an infectious component. It is necessary to exclude colitis, pyelonephritis, and other chronic infectious diseases. And then you will need an immunologist, perhaps a neurologist, depending on the complaints present in addition to the temperature. And treatment will be prescribed depending on the situation: some will benefit from vitamins and antihypoxic agents, while others need something else. In general, there are a lot of such patients; we have been dealing with them for a long time. It’s just that people today have begun to pay more attention to temperature and saturation. Previously, almost no one knew what a pulse oximeter was, but now everyone knows about it. People have become more attentive to themselves, and this is great, but there are also overreactions.
How to protect yourself?
It is possible to prevent the development of any undesirable effects from a flu shot if you approach the issue of vaccination responsibly. Firstly, you need to undergo a doctor’s examination before the procedure, which will rule out the presence of acute diseases. Secondly, if you are afraid of potential risks, you should additionally undergo at least clinical tests that will allow you to assess the condition of the body. Thirdly, you should not get vaccinated if you have any ailments. In such a situation, it is better to postpone it until the person feels 100% healthy.
If you have doubts and worries, you can additionally consult an immunologist, who will tell you how to protect yourself from even mild side effects after getting vaccinated against influenza or advise ways to minimize the consequences.
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How long does the temperature last after vaccination?
As a rule, the body reacts to the introduction of the vaccine on the same day, including an increase in temperature, but there are also pauses of up to two days. The nature of the reaction depends on many factors, primarily on the characteristics of the organism itself, and on the vaccine administered, of course. Doctors usually distinguish three forms: mild, moderate and severe with temperatures up to 37.5, 38.5 and above 39 degrees, respectively. Let us emphasize once again: all this is very individual and it makes no sense to give any general assessments and recommendations. Ideally, your pediatrician should warn you if your child is at risk of hyperthermia after receiving any vaccines. By the way, it happens, although rarely, when the temperature does not rise at all after a vaccine, and this is also normal - this is how a particular organism reacts.
In most cases, the temperature returns to normal quite quickly: on the first day it is still high, on the second it begins to decrease noticeably (usually it rises slightly only in the evening), and on the third it already returns to normal. The described clinical picture can be called normal, and it is observed in approximately 70% of patients. 40% of children have a fever for 4 days, 25% for up to 5 days, and only 5% of those vaccinated are at risk of complications for a week or longer (there are different statistics, we have given one of the options here).
Observation after vaccination
If we talk specifically about the risk of hyperthermia, then after vaccination it is necessary to measure the temperature every 4-6 hours. If the temperature rises noticeably, check more often and begin to bring it down. Please note that hyperthermia may return even after the temperature has stabilized, so check for it within a week after vaccination.
There is no consensus on whether it is necessary to lower the temperature after vaccination, but they are usually guided by the same principles as with a common viral disease: you should not interfere up to 38 degrees, and above that you should give antipyretics. However, this is all very individual, and there are situations when it is necessary to react even to a low temperature, for example, with a noticeable general deterioration in the condition or with a tendency to seizures and neurological diseases.
How to relieve the condition
Post-vaccination reactions are not only an elevated temperature, so first create a calm environment, do not force children to lie in bed all the time - they do not like this, do not burden them with any activities, refrain from walks. General recommendations include regularly ventilating the room, giving more fluids and not forcing people to eat, as appetite decreases after vaccination. Of particular note is the ban on aspirin - it has too many side effects.
As for the methods of reducing the temperature, they are the same as for any viral diseases: give Paracetamol or Nurofen, wipe with a damp cloth - everyone has their own favorite methods, we will not describe them here.
Features of hyperthermia in infants
One of the peculiarities of infants is that they have a normal temperature of approximately 37.3 degrees, and its increase after vaccinations is observed less frequently. It is also important to know that hyperthermia in infants develops much more rapidly, so measures must be taken even with a slight increase in temperature to 37.5 degrees.
