<s>[INST] Hi. My dear friend s child is a girl, age four. She has seen the doctor and is diagnosed with flu. She is taking ibuprofen. There are no other children in the home. She complains of neck pain. She began late Monday of this week and has spiked fevers twice at least at 102.7 on Tuesday. During warm baths chlld complains of feeling cold. Mother has no computer access except in local library. Mother has worked as EMT years ago and fears meningitis. Doctor on Tuesday checked child s ears with care and saw no problem there. Please advise. [/INST] Hi...neck pain along with fever could be a simple viral illness or typhoid (meningismi) or as the mother rightly suspected meningitis. But if the kid is active when the fever is down, you need not worry. Fever of few days without any localizing signs could as well a viral illness. Usually rather than fever, what is more important is the activity of the child, in between 2 fever episodes on the same day. If the kid is active and playing around when there is no fever, it is probably viral illness and it doesn't require antibiotics at all. Once viral fever comes it will there for 4-7 days. So do not worry about duration if the kid is active. Regards -  </s>