Taipei City Hospital

      Xiaoru, a seven-month baby girl who used to be very healthy and was inoculated on time each time, began to have high fever five days ago; she vomited several times within the last two days. During this period, her mother took her to see the doctors. Some doctors said she might have caught roseola, while some thought she could be infected with enterogastritis. A doctor advised Xiaoru to take a urine examination. But the mother refused because she didn’t want to wait.

      Because Xiaoru’s fever did not fade and she started losing her appetite and spirit, her mother took her to Taipei City Hospital’s Yangming branch. After an examination, Xiaoru was diagnosed with urinary tract infection and acute nephropyelitis. She was admitted to hospital to receive antibiotics treatment, after which she finally began to get better.

      Lin Peiqing, a pediatrician of the Yangming branch, said that urinary tract infection is one of the common causes of infant fever and that acute nephropyelitis is one of the most common severe virus infections of infants. Unlike adult urinary tract infection, infants will not announce their pain when peeing or the abnormal peeing frequency. On the contrary, fever is usually the only symptom, so early diagnosis is often overlooked. But what is worse is that when there is a fever, acute nephropyelitis has often already developed.

      Lin Peiqing explained further that if infants have the symptom of vesicoureteral reflux, their urinary tract infection will occur repeatedly or even lead to nephropyelitis, which will affect the kidneys and form incrustation. Through time, kidney functions may be damaged, and high blood pressure or even end-stage renal disease may be the result, which will then require hemodialysis.

      Lin reminds parents that if infants have a fever, seek medical attention as soon as possible, and ask for further examination if necessary, so that they can be diagnosed early and treated early.