People vary in their response to infection.
While one person may have a temperature with the mildest of infections, another person will tell you that if he has a temperature of 99.6 degrees he must be sick because he seldom has a fever. A fever is a symptom not a sickness and, in general, fevers or an increase in body temperature is one of the body's defenses against infection. Fever may actually help to shorten the course of an infection by activating the immune system. The body's defenses work best when there is an elevation of temperature. The health policies at school state that a child will be sent home when the temperature has reached 101 degrees.