[Fever of intermediate duration]. / Fiebre de duración intermedia.

Fever of intermediate duration (FID) is defined as non-localized fever occurring in the community, lasting from one to four weeks, and having no diagnostic orientation after basic clinical, analytical and radiological evaluations are completed. These may include careful recording of clinical history, physical examination, hemogram, plasma creatinine determination, urinalysis, and chest radiography. The etiology of FID is still not completely defined. In our country, 70% of cases are caused by systemic infectious diseases (rickettsiosis, brucellosis, and mononucleosis syndrome) and 7.7% by localized infections; vasculitis and neoplasms account for less than 2%. In most cases FID can be attended on an outpatient basis, with the guarantee of the easy accessibility. In cases without social support or when there is digestive intolerance or criteria of severe disease, hospital care is required. For the diagnostic approach, it is useful to establish basic rules and to organize the study in several stages, taking into account the most frequent etiologies. The first visit would include elaboration of the clinical history, a hemogram, biochemistry analyses, blood cultures, urine culture, serological studies for the most frequent etiologies, a chest radiograph, and other examinations, as indicated by the clinical history data. The care provided and subsequent diagnostic studies performed will depend on the patient's progression and findings from additional studies. Further works conducted in various geographic settings are necessary to define the complete etiological spectrum of FID.