baltazar said:

and the higher temperature is that that killes the bacteria ? ...

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Sev said:

Most proteins necessary for life denature somewhere above 100*F and below 212*F.  This is why fevers work to help fight off bacterial and viral infections -- and why excessively high fevers kill. 


...Wow, that was long.  I must be bored.

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Magash said:

You have to get into temprature ranges that a PC can't reach to kill endospores.
<snip>
For a spore to go back to its active vegetative cell state, it goes through a process called germination.

<snip>

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Tantalus said:

Everything else you said is correct, but not this.  The reason fevers help fight infections is that they speed the body's immune response.  The difference in temperature may throw off the ideal conditions for some pathogens, but extreme temps certainly arn't going to kill bacteria and viruses before they kill a human.

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Actually, it's still true, but I should've explained more.

High-but-not-lethal temperatures still cause a certain amount of protein denaturing -- the proteins deform and do their jobs less well.  In this case, however, at these relatively low temps, the denaturing generally isn't permanant.

A fever impairs both the host and the pathogen.  However, the point is to arrest or reduce the rate of reproduction of the pathogen so that the body can muster and fight it.  The body pulls a Russian Army on the pathogen, and throws everything at it while keeping the temps up to try and prevent the pathogen from breeding.  The temperatures don't help the body any -- indeed, they cause significant problems for it, which is why you feel like utter shit when you've got a high fever -- but since a (moderately healthy) body has huge reserves to draw on, this is a viable tactic. 

Think about it.  106*F or so kills cube spores and myc.  At 105-106 core temp, a human is risking death or permanant disability.  (And all of this is because key enzyme structures begin to denature at these temperatures, of function so badly that the system breaks down.)  A 103 or 104 fever is very close to that danger zone.  The human body is suffering under that temperature -- it isn't going to respond more quickly.  This is actually key in limiting viral infections, since the body's own machinery is being used to produce more viral particles.  By raising the temperatures and causing its own systems to malfunction, the body helps curb the viral reproduction.

So, yes.  The high (fever) temperatures won't kill bacteria without killing their host, but they inhibit reproduction through the mechanisms I mentioned -- namely, protein denaturing through high temperatures.