Rehab Medical

Health information

Fever and flu

Most fevers in otherwise healthy adults and children are viral, last three to five days, and get better without antibiotics — which do nothing at all against a virus. What matters is not how high the temperature is, but how the person looks and behaves: a child with 39.5°C who is drinking, alert and playing is safer than a quiet, floppy child with 38°C. We see you to decide whether this is the ordinary kind, and to catch the small number of fevers that are not.

When it cannot wait

Signs that mean today

These are not reasons to book an appointment. They are reasons to be seen now, or to call an ambulance on 123.

  • A rash that does not fade when you press a glass against it, a stiff neck, a severe headache with dislike of light, or a fit — emergency department now.
  • Any baby under three months with a temperature of 38°C or more — that is an emergency assessment regardless of how well the baby seems.
  • Difficulty breathing, grunting, blue or grey lips, a child too weak to feed, or one who cannot be roused properly.
  • Confusion, drowsiness, no urine for eight hours or more, or cold mottled hands and feet — in an adult as much as a child.

When to book

Reasons to be seen

  • The fever has lasted five days or more, or it settled and then came back.
  • You are pregnant, over 65, have diabetes, a heart or lung condition, or take medication that suppresses immunity.
  • There is ear pain, a sore throat with difficulty swallowing, a productive cough, burning on passing urine, or pain in one place rather than all over.
  • You have returned from travel in the last month, particularly from a country where malaria or dengue occurs. Say so when you book — it changes what we test for.

What a visit looks like

What a visit for this involves

  • 25–30 minutesClinic visitAt the clinic, unhurried
  • 20 minutesVideo consultationFrom anywhere in Egypt
  • 15 minutesFollow-upAfter a recent visit, same complaint

In the room

What the doctor checks

  1. A structured look for the source: throat, ears, chest, abdomen, skin, urine — most fevers declare themselves once you examine properly.
  2. In children under five we work through the NICE traffic-light features — colour, activity, breathing, hydration — because those, not the thermometer, predict serious illness.
  3. Tests only where they change the decision: a urine sample, a rapid strep or malaria test, a blood count. Not a routine panel for a two-day fever.
  4. Clear safety-netting: exactly which signs mean come back today, which mean come back in 48 hours, and which mean you can stay home.

Come prepared

What to bring

  • The temperatures you have recorded, with the times — and how you measured them.
  • Anything already given, including paracetamol and anything a pharmacy suggested. Please bring the box.
  • For a child: the vaccination card, and roughly how much they have drunk and how many wet nappies today.

Next step

Tell us what's happening and we'll arrange the right kind of visit.

Message the clinic on WhatsApp. We reply with the times that are free and what the visit costs, before you agree to anything.

Book on WhatsApp

At home

Between visits

  • Fluids, in small frequent amounts, matter more than any medicine. Watch urine output rather than the thermometer.
  • Treat the discomfort, not the number — paracetamol if the person is miserable, not to force a reading down. Do not alternate medicines without being told to.
  • Do not start leftover antibiotics from a previous illness. In Egypt this is the commonest single cause of a resistant infection later on, and it also masks the picture we need to see.

Before you write

Questions patients ask

Written and clinically reviewed by Dr. Rehab Ahmed, MBBCh, Ain Shams University · Diploma in Family Medicine. Last reviewed August 2026.

What this page is based on

This page is general information written by the practice. It is not a diagnosis and does not replace seeing a doctor. In an emergency, call 123.

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