European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: Acute undifferentiated fever (AUF) remains the leading cause of hospitalisation among adults and children in urban and rural regions of Southeast Asia. The causes include common diseases such as dengue, scrub typhus, murine typhus, leptospirosis, and enteric fever, which continue to contribute significantly to the febrile disease burden. Although malaria may present similarly, its overall incidence and impact on health in this region is declining. Materials and methods: This is a Hospital based prospective observational study The present study emphasizes on the infective aetiologies of Acute Undifferentiated fevers with special emphasis on clinical and demographic features among patients admitted in a teaching hospital in Pondicherry. This study was undertaken in the Department of Pediatrics and required cases were taken from among the inpatients of the same over a period of 1 year. All adult patients (≥18 years) admitted to the hospital with fever of less than 21 days duration, with temperature ≥38º C upon admission and non-detection of any specific foci of infection by history, physical examination and routine investigations. Result: In present investigation, an aggregate of 90 patients with intense identical fever were assessed out of these 57 (63.3%) were male and 33 (36.7%) were female. In this investigation typhoid fever was the most well-known reason for undifferentiated fever (31.1%) trailed by malaria (21.1%), dengue fever (18.9%), urinary tract disease (10%), Acute gastroenteritis (8.9%), Pneumonia (5.6%), Bronchiolitis (2.2%), Hepatitis (1.1%) and Pharyngotonsillitis (1.1%). Conclusion: Non-malarial infections are common causes of AUFI in children in this part of the country. The most common specific infection was Scrub typhus, followed by Dengue and Enteric fever. Proportion of undiagnosed fever, most of which were presumed non-specific viral fever, still remains high owing to limited diagnostic facilities. Due to high prevalence of Scrub typhus in this area, a thorough search for eschar should be made in all patients of AUFI. Empirical Chloroquine can be safely avoided unless tested positive for malaria. Similarly, empirical antibiotics can be avoided in children presenting with AUFI.