STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- The French health ministry is warning against using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen to treat fever and pain associated with COVID-19 infection, and to use acetaminophen (paracetamol) instead
- There’s also an entirely different reason for avoiding NSAIDs and other antipyretics when you have a fever. Fever is part of your body’s immune response; it’s how your body kills pathogens
- Treating fever can prolong and exacerbate illness, and has been shown to increase mortality
- Research has also shown ibuprofen does not improve survival in patients with sepsis. Heat-shock proteins induced by fever protect against oxidative injury caused by sepsis, so by suppressing heat-shock proteins, antipyretic drugs have the potential to worsen outcomes