January is....

National Volunteer Blood Donor Month

HSC Blood Drives

• To be eligible to donate blood, a person must be in good health, be at least 17 years of age, weigh at least 110 pounds and not have donated blood in the last 56 days.

• During the year 2001, over 15 million units of blood were donated by 8 million donors.

• Volunteers donate virtually all of this country's supply of blood for transfusion. It is important to encourage all healthy individuals to donate blood.

• Many people are worried that there are risks associated with donating blood.  To ease your mind there are almost NO risks associated with donating blood.  It is a totally sterile process in which it is impossible to catch a disease such as HIV or Hepatitis. 

Interesting Blood Facts

 

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

FEVER: Eight Burning Questions
Special Report from Consumer Reports, November 2004

Having a fever is one of your body's defenses against infection.  To fight invading microbes or even cancer cells, your immune system releases chemical messengers that tell your brain to raise its temperature.  That further stimulates your immune response and triggers chemical and metabolic changes that are hostile to the intruders.

When people have a fever, they most likely take an aspirin or other type of medicine to lower it.  But in theory, lowering a fever may undermine that defense and lengthen the illness by a day or two.  Limited evidence suggests that fever-reducing drugs themselves might prolong a sickness.

The idea that reducing fever is a good way to hasten recovery from illness is just one of many popular misconceptions about normal and abnormal temperature.  This true-false quiz will help you determine whether your ideas about body heat are consistent with the latest scientific information.

Click on true or false for the answers to these burning questions!

• Normal temperature is 98.6. True or False?

  • True

    •   Incorrect.

  • False  

    • That familiar value is merely an overall average based on 19th-century research.  We now know normal body temperature varies substantially, depending on numerous factors, such as individual differences, age, time of day, phase of the menstrual cycle, and type of thermometer.  Figuring out the temperatures that are "normal" for you at different times of they day will help you know whether you have a fever.  Take your temperature three successive days when you're feeling well - before getting out of bed in the morning, late afternoon, and before going to bed - and figure out the average.

• Touching the skin is a reliable way to tell whether someone has a fever.  True or False?

  • True

    • Incorrect.

  • False

    • In a 2003 study done in India, 60% of the kids who skin felt hot to their caregiver, had no fever at all.  The best site for checking is the abdomen, not the forehead, but the only reliable way to check for fever is using a thermometer.

• All over-the-counter analgesics are equally good choices for lowering fever.  True or False?

  • True

    • Incorrect.

  • False

    • Those drugs, such as aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen (advil), and naproxen (aleve) generally do reduce fever comparably well.  But some are safer than others for many people.  For otherwise healthy adults, any of the fever-reducing medications is a reasonable choice.  But individuals with the following common conditions should avoid certain analgesics.
      - hypertension, heart failure, ulcers, or kidney disease: Stick with the acetaminophen.  The other drugs can raise blood pressure, aggravate ulcers, and worsen the effects of heart failure and kidney problems.
      - Coronary heart disease: If you're already taking a daily aspirin to protect your heart, treat fever with acetaminophen.  Taking additional aspirin might possible cause bleeding, and ibuprofen - and perhaps its cousins ketoprofen and naproxen, too - can undermine aspirin's coronary benefits.
      - Liver disease or current heavy drinking: Avoid acetaminophen, which can harm the liver in those people.  The other analgesics also pose some liver risk, but they're far better choices when needed.
      - Pregnancy: Choose acetaminophen.  The others may harm the fetus and prolong labor.
      - Breast-Feeding: Avoid aspirin, which might cause bleeding or other problems in the baby.

• A cold bath won't reduce your temperature and might even raise it.  True or False?

  • True

    • A cold bath may lower skin temperature, but it rarely reduces significantly the body's all-important core temperature.  And the cold water can sometimes cause  shivering, which not only compounds the discomfort but can also push your temperature up higher.  If a high fever persists despite fever-fighting drugs, a sponge bath with tepid water may provide some relief.  The evaporation modestly cools the body and is less likely than a cold bath to cause shivering.  For various reasons, sponging works best if done an hour or so after take a fever-reducing drug.

  • False

    • Incorrect.

• High fevers often cause brain damage.  True or False?

  • True

    • Incorrect.

  • False

    • Prolonged fevers higher than 106 are indeed linked with an increased risk of brain damage.  But such fevers - typically caused by meningitis, encephalitis, or other central nervous system infections - are uncommon.  In the vast majority of the cases, fever is harmless and self-limiting: temperature may rise to 104 or even 105 but then it stops climbing. 

• A fever signals bacterial infection, so you should take an antibiotic.  True or False?

  • True

    • Incorrect.

  • False

    • May fever-producing illnesses are caused by viruses, which don't respond to conventional antibiotics.  So your physician should be reasonably sure that bacteria are to blame before prescribing those drugs, which can cause significant side effects and help generate antibiotic resistance.  In some feverish patients, prompt antibiotic use is justified by the clinical evidence alone while waiting for the results of a culture to confirm a bacterial infection.  That clinical evidence include obvious signs of a wound infection; frequent, bloody, or burning urination; severe headache, nausea, and vomiting; difficulty swallowing caused by severe sore throat with swollen lymph nodes in the neck; pain concentrated in one are of the abdomen; shaking chills; or profuse diarrhea for more than a day.  But in less severe cases, it's best to wait for the culture results before starting an antibiotic.

• If you have a fever, it's essential to consult a doctor.  True or False?

  • True

    • Incorrect.

  • False

    • Generally healthy people who have no severe symptoms probably have a viral infection and will likely do fine by just drinking enough fluids to prevent dehydration and waiting for the illness to pass.  Contacting a doctor is important only if the fever persists for more than three days or is accompanied by any of the symptoms of bacterial infection mentioned above.  It's also prudent to consult a doctor about even a slight fever if you're very old or have heart disease, cancer, or another serious underlying illness.  That's because your body might have difficulty coping with the increased metabolic demands caused by even a low-grade fever, and it may be unable to generate a higher temperature even when there's a serious infection.

• If you don't feel like resting when you've got a fever, you don't have to.  True or False?

  • True

    • Fever and the underlying infection can make you feel weak and listless, so you may prefer to stay in bed. But there's rarely a medical reason for bed rest.  So if you're feeling reasonably well despite the fever, there's no reason why you can't be up and about - provided you don't exercise heavily, which could weaken your already overburdened immune system.  However, try to keep your distance from other people to avoid infecting them.

  • False

    • Incorrect.