cause of death?

[jc26red]

On the civil death entry for James Creed 22 March 1880 in Dublin, the cause of death is given as "low fever".  What is "low fever"?

I've tried searching but not really finding an answer

James was aged 42, married with 3 children and an Army physician on half pay and  had been in Jamaica with the army a few years earlier. He died at his mother's home, Moore Hall, Glasnevin, Dublin.

Thank you for any suggestions.

[*Sandra*]

Could it be............A low-grade fever is often classified as an oral temperature that is above 98.6° F (37° C) but lower than 100.4° F  - It may mean that the body is responding to an infection

Sandra

[jc26red]

But would that be a cause of death? Surely that would have been written as secondary to an infection somewhere?

It was certified, I'm guessing the attending doctor would have been able to come up with a more accurate description given the patient was also a doctor and likely to have described his own symptoms accurately, previous to dying obviously..   

But the informant does appear to be a member of staff at the house, signed his name with an X.

[Gadget]

Something about it here in a 1912 article:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/653519?redirect=true

I also saw a ref to another name for typhoid fever.

Gadget

[jc26red]

Thank you Gadget, that's an interesting article. Seems like there are several possibilities of the real cause of death.

Sepsis seems to be the most likely, unless he had been in India shortly before returning to Ireland where he could have contracted malaria and had a flare up at home.  Problem with being a medical doctor at that time, is they come into contact with all sorts of nasties and could have easily caught something.

Thank you both for looking.
Jenny

[stanmapstone]

The Low Fever Typhus Mitior in Latin. [Hooper1822] http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/English/EnglishL.htm

Stan

[jc26red]

Thank you Stan,