eli5: If fever is our body’s response to kill an infection, then why do we take medicines like paracetamol that control the fever?

Question

Also, I get that the fever can get really high at some point, which causes other effects, but why is our body not able to control its response to the infection so as to not do more harm with the fever?

In: 59

Answer 1

Research shows you shouldn’t lower your fever with drugs unless you have additional risk factors or your fever gets too high. But if you have a low fever you are likelier to recover faster if you don’t lower your fever.