Direct Effects of Hyperthermia on Pathogenic Microorganisms: Teleologic Implications with Regard to Fever

Fever recently has been the subject of numerous reviews in the clinical literature. Although most of these reviews have devoted considerable attention to studies concerned with the effect of temperature on the immunologic responses of higher animals, they generally have ignored data concerned with the direct effects of physiologic variations in temperature on pathogenic microorganisms. This review summarizes the current status of our knowledge of the reactions of clinically important microorganisms to variations in temperature within the physiologic range and attempts to relate data obtained from in vitro studies of these reactions to the still-unresolved question of the teleologic significance of fever.