Is 37℃ a fever? What's the difference between ear temperature and forehead temperature? Understand the three knowledge of temperature measurement at once!

The epidemic in COVID-19 continues to spread. In addition to taking temperature when entering or leaving the hospital, temperature detection stations are also set up in front of exhibition venues or some large department stores. Even the Taipei MRT began to try infrared temperature measurement, and refused to ride as long as it was found to exceed 38℃.

However, although many people know that 38℃ represents a fever, they don't know that the actual measurement of body temperature in different places will get different results, even very different; Besides, the symptoms in COVID-19 are not obvious, which is likely to become a loophole in epidemic prevention. But in fact, as long as you know three little things about measuring body temperature, you can correctly observe your current physical condition.

A fever means that the body's immune system is starting! Although hearing "fever" will subconsciously make you nervous about "whether you are infected with the virus", in fact, moderate fever and raising your body temperature can also improve the efficiency of the immune system. Using a large number of antipyretics to suppress fever will increase the mortality of sepsis or infection, so fever is a protective instinctive reaction.

But when you have a fever, you need a lot of energy, so you will consume oxygen, produce carbon dioxide, and increase the burden on your heart. Therefore, for people with chronic diseases and poor cardiopulmonary function, the burden will be particularly heavy. Pay special attention to the changes of physical symptoms. Even if your temperature is not particularly high, you should send them to the doctor as soon as possible.

Take your temperature in these five places first, and the results will be different! If you ask someone that a temperature above a few degrees is a fever, many people will definitely answer "38℃". But this answer can be said to be "true or false", because 38℃ refers to the central temperature inside the body, such as the temperature in the rectum and ear canal, rather than the body surface temperature, so the measurement tools and body parts are different, and the results will be different.

According to the data of the national health department, although the "definition" of fever is that the central body temperature is ≥38℃, the temperature between 37.5℃ and 38℃ may also be "low fever". Therefore, in addition to looking at absolute figures, we should also refer to symptoms such as normal body temperature to determine whether we have a fever.

There are five ways to measure your temperature. If it exceeds this temperature, you may have a fever!

Anal temperature: 38℃ Ear temperature: 38℃ Forehead temperature: 37.5℃ (with poor accuracy) Mouth temperature: 37.5℃ Axillary temperature: 37℃ There are five commonly used methods to measure body temperature, among which anal temperature is closest to the real body temperature, and the correlation between ear temperature and anal temperature is very high, so 38℃ can be used as a criterion.

The commonly used forehead temperature, mouth temperature and axillary temperature, although some machines have infrared temperature measurement, are still easily affected by factors such as skin and mucous membrane vasoconstriction, which are usually 0.5℃ lower than anal temperature and ear temperature; Axillary temperature is 0.8 ~ 65438 0℃ lower than anal temperature on average, so remember to deduct these error values when measuring.

Second, we should "wait" when taking temperature to reduce the error value. But the ear thermometer is out of stock, so many people can only buy forehead thermometer or underarm thermometer. When using these devices, the error value is relatively high, and the body surface temperature will be affected by many factors. Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to these places before taking the temperature.

Drinking hot water, exercising, basking in the sun for a long time and wearing too many clothes will all raise your body temperature. It is suggested that you sit still 15 ~ 30 minutes and then take your temperature, which will be more accurate. The use of electronic thermometers needs to be calibrated regularly to avoid errors. When using electronic thermometer to measure axillary temperature, it is necessary to hold the thermometer and wait for at least 1 minute, so that the measured temperature will be more accurate. Third, record your body temperature every day to catch the "abnormality". As mentioned above, everyone's core temperature is actually different. Some people may have a low body temperature, only 35 ~ 36℃, so as long as it is 37℃, it may actually be a state of low fever; Some people usually have a high body temperature, reaching 37℃, so they have to wait until 38℃ to have a fever.

Therefore, when taking your temperature, it is best to take your temperature once in the morning and evening, and record it to see if there is any abnormal change in your temperature, which suddenly increases or decreases.