A5V4d

Advice for home care
As sufficient level of consensus was not achieved, no recommendation could be made about this
statement.
There was a lack of evidence to show whether parents/carers looking after a feverish child should
check their child during the night. This therefore was included in the Delphi survey.
Delphi statement 1.4
Parents/carers looking after a feverish child at home should be advised to check their child during the
night.
In round 1 the rating categories were:
1 to 3 4 to 6 7 to 9 Don’t know Missing Total Median
2 (4%) 11 (22%) 35 (70%) 2 (4%) 3 50 8
Sufficient consensus was not achieved in round 1.
In round 2 the rating categories were:
1 to 3 4 to 6 7 to 9 Don’t know Missing Total Median
1 (2%) 5 (10%) 45 (88%) 1 51 8
Therefore sufficient consensus was achieved. As there is no evidence to show how often the
parents/carers should check the child during the night, the healthcare professional assessing the child
may want to advise on this.
School attendance
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has strict policies that emphasise the importance of
good school attendance, and that parents should notify their school on the first day of absence
through illness, for health and safety reasons. Nevertheless, although there is a document readily
available in schools that shows how long a child should be absent if the child has a known infectious
disease, there is no evidence that shows how long a child with a fever of unknown origin should be
absent from school or nursery and, this was sent to the Delphi panel.
Delphi statement 1.5
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has strict policies that emphasise the importance of
good school attendance, and that parents should notify their school on the first day of absence
through illness, for health and safety reasons. Nevertheless, although there is a document readily
available in schools that shows how long a child should be absent if the child has a known infectious
disease, there is no evidence that shows how long a child with a fever of unknown origin should be
absent from school or nursery and, this was sent to the Delphi panel.
Parents/carers looking after a feverish child at home should be advised to keep their child away from
nursery or school while the child’s fever persists but to notify the school or nursery of the illness.
In round 1 the ratings categories were:
1 to 3 4 to 6 7 to 9 Don’t know Missing Total Median
1 (2%) 5 (10%) 43 (86%) 1 (2%) 3 50 8.5
Consensus was therefore achieved for this statement.
Appearance of non-blanching rash
At the suggestion of a stakeholder, the GDG decided that parents/carers should be told how to
identify a non-blanching rash. A non-blanching rash is a feature of meningococcal disease (see
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