One hundred and twenty-six children suffering from a prolonged fever of >14 days without an initial definite diagnosis were enrolled. There were 60 (48%) girls and 66 (52%) boys, with a mean age of 6.7 years (range, 1 month to 18 years). Thirty-four (27%) children were aged 1 month to 2 years, 30 (24%) were aged 3–6 years, 17 (13%) were aged 7–10 years, and 45 (36%) were >10 years old.
Ninety-six cases had a definitive diagnosis, including 34 (27%) cases with infectious diseases, 25 (19.8%) with miscellaneous etiologies, 21 (16.6%) with malignancies, and 16 (12.7%) with autoimmune diseases (Table 1). Thirty (23.8%) cases remained undiagnosed.