When to worry?
Neutropenia is not a condition to be ignored and a neutropenic person should always be on the lookout for danger signs or “red flags”. An infection is bad, but a missed infection can be fatal. Danger signs to look for include:
- Fever, chills and a general sense of malaise: those are signs of infection and even though neutropenic individuals can have hidden infections which show no fever, fever is almost always a dangerous sign in neutropenic individuals and seeking medical care is necessary especially if fever is more than 38 Celsius.
- Diarrhea and vomiting: They are signs of gastrointestinal infections.
- Burning sensation during micturition, frequent visits to the bathroom with little voiding: They are usually signs of urinary tract infection.
- Skin rashes
- Difficulty breathing and chest pain: Although chest pain has many diagnoses, its association with difficulty breathing could point out to pneumonia.