By MICHELLE ROBBINS Tribune Chronicle When should you call off sick? For how long? When should you go to work and stick it out? Under consideration is not where you work or what you do, but how you feel. The symptoms, and the severity of those symptoms, especially fever, are the deciding factors. Dr. Badi Altawil, a doctor of internal medicine in Champion, said people are “panicky” right now, but he doesn’t issue get-out-of-work excuses over the phone. He’s not testing for H1N1, but is looking for “ILI” — influenza-like illness. “If they’ve seen the doctor and present acute symptoms and there is a high index of suspicion (that they have H1N1), they should be off an average of three to five days.” Those symptoms include exhaustion, a high-grade fever above 101 degrees, coughing, severe headache and/or malaise (a general feeling of discomfort and fatigue). To combat them, there’s rest, fluids, vitamins and something for pain and fever.