Voor elk kind met koorts een eigen ‘stoplicht’?

Fever in children is very common, and is usually caused by self-limiting upper-respiratory-tract infections. The low incidence of serious infections makes it a challenge to identify children that do have a serious infection and need treatment or observation. The Dutch Society of Paediatrics (NVK) recently presented their guideline for febrile children in secondary care. This is an important, science-based guideline. However, the diagnostic schemes presented, which are based on tests that are not available in primary care, in combination with a different prior chance of serious infections between the primary and secondary care settings make it difficult to translate this guideline to primary care. Nevertheless, the 'traffic light system' presented is a promising potential safety net tool for providing advice for parents in the general practitioner's consultation room. A traffic light system especially developed for primary care should be considered.