Children with fever and petechiae or Purpura

Abstract

The appearance of a petechial rash in a patient with fever is related to multiple diseases of varying severity (Table 1). The most common etiology is viral, however, in a small proportion of patients (2% of febrile patients with petechiae; 7-11% of febrile patients admitted with petechiae) the causal agent is a meningococcus and petechiae are the first sign of bacterial vasculitis and disseminated intravascular coagulation typical of sepsis. A review of the literature of the last three years of the main medical publications is carried out and through critical reading an adaptation to the Latin American reality is presented.