Non-localizing Fever as Urinary Tract Infection in Children

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the commonly diagnosed bacterial infections of childhood. However, fever without a localizing point often remains the diagnostic dilemma and not diagnosing UTI could have devastating result for an otherwise easily manageable entity.
All febrile children aged 2 months to 10 years without an apparent cause of fever were enrolled and evaluated for possible UTI.
A total of 304 children were recruited; 140 were males and 164 females. Of 304 who had fever without any apparent signs, 40 had UTI. The prevalence of UTI was 13.2% in the study group.
Urinary tract infection presenting as fever without any focus was present in 13.2% of hospitalized patients favouring urine examination to rule out UTI in all febrile children without definite source of fever.