Having Sudden Diarrhea With Vomiting And Little Fever. What Could Be Reason?

Posted on Wed, 12 Dec 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 Answered on

Thu, 3 Jan 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I am a 53 year old healthy woman. Sunday night I had a sudden bout of diarrhea and vomiting which lasted until Monday. I also had a 100.8 fever which lasted until Tuesday night. A slight headache also. My symptom which bothers me the most is bad night sweats with this. Is this normal or should I be concerned? I rarely get sick so this is new for me.

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (38 minutes later)

Hello!

Thank you for the query.

Such symptoms may appear because of digestive tract infection (the most probable) or partial bowel obstruction. Fever confirms that it is probably an infection. Night sweats might be associated with fever.
But, such symptoms can show up with more serious disease. Night sweats can always be present with a cancer. And as you are at the age around 50, you should have colon cancer ruled out. Especially if you have had constipations or/and diarrheas before, lost some weight recently, have any blood in stool.
It is advisable for you to have some diagnostics. You should start with full blood work, urine analysis and abdominal ultrasound. If the WBC will be increased and hemoglobin level will be low, colonoscopy should be performed.

Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar