Scarlet fever, or scarlet fever, is an infectious bacterial disease that affects both children and adults. Common symptoms of scarlet fever are a small rash on the extremities and torso, high fever, sore throat, nausea, and vomiting. What are the causes and how to treat scarlet fever?

Scarlet fever(its other name isscarlet fever ) is an infectious disease caused by streptococcus type A ( Streptococcus pyogens ), the same one that causes purulent angina. Scarlet fever develops a rash that is scarlet red and small, different from that caused by viruses such as rubella (pale pink) and measles (red, but also on the face, while scarlet fever develops facial erythema or strong uniform redness).

Scarlet fever is spread by airborne droplets- by direct contact with a sick person and by touching objects they have used, as well as by contact with he althy carriers of streptococci.

Scarlet fever occurs in both children (and is considered to be one of the common serious childhood diseases) and adults, and scarlet fever in adults may have slightly different symptoms than those diagnosed in children.

Scarlet fever: symptoms

Behindsymptomsscarlet fever are caused by erythrogenic toxins secreted by streptococci, one of their types - A, B or C.

Typicalsymptomsscarlet fever is:

  • feeling of general breakdown,
  • high fever 39-40 degrees C,
  • sore throat - it is very red, dark red, sometimes with visible threadlike ecchymoses. With scarlet fever, the tonsils are enlarged and bloodshot. They are often covered with white bloom. At the beginning of scarlet fever, the tongue is also covered with a thick, white-gray coating. Then the raid on the tongue disappears, but reddened nipples are visible on it, it takes a raspberry color ( although nowadays raspberry tongue does not occur with scarlet fever).
  • rash on the body and limbs.
  • stomach aches, nausea, vomiting - as with food poisoning.
  • enlarged, painful lymph nodes in the neck.

Pediatricians say, however, that scarlet fever in children today does not produce all the typical symptoms.In adults, scarlet fever is sometimes confused withsevere allergy.

More toxic scarlet fevermay also cause cardiovascular disorders, myocarditis, loss of consciousness, systolic murmurs over the heart, enlarged liver, and enlarged spleen.

Scarlet fever may also be septic .

Large changes in the throat and inflammation of the cervical lymph nodes are then observed. There may be necrosis of the tissues of the floor of the mouth (Ludwig's angina), bacteremia and sepsis. Specialists distinguish another form of scarlet fever when the infection occurs through damaged skin - this iswound scarlet . It is like the classicscarlet feverbut not accompanied by angina.

Scarlet feveris very contagious, therefore the patient should be isolated - if possible - from the onset of symptoms until 24 hours after the administration of the antibiotic.

Scarlet fever: characteristic rash

During scarlet fever concurrently with fever, or one to three days later, a rash appears.The scarlet fever rash is very red - scarlet and slight . It resembles a porridge or the pricks of a dense metal brush.

The rash occurs mainly on the trunk and limbs, especially in places where the temperature is higher - in the bends of the arms and legs, in the groin. Some time after its appearance, it may blot into spots.

In addition to the rash, thread-like ecchymoses(Pastia lines) may appear on the body and throat because the action of bacteria makes the blood vessels fragile.A characteristic symptom of scarlet fever is the appearance of a new ecchymosis after pinching the skin.

A characteristic symptom of scarlet fever is a strong erythema on the face - the cheeks and forehead are red. On the other hand, in the middle zone, in the triangle marked by the nose and mouth corners (the so-called Violet triangle) - the skin remains normal in color.

In adults, sometimes the rash immediately forms larger raised patches, prompting doctors to believe that we are dealing with an allergy. In such situations, facial erythema may be a factor indicative of scarlet fever.

Equally typical with scarlet fever is the descent of the rash. It is associated with peeling of the skin (thick flaking skin). Initially, it comes off the face, then peels off on the body, and finally on the legs and hands.

Scarlet fever: diagnosis

The doctor first of all evaluatessymptoms . It may be important to culture the pharynx (the material must be collected not only from the tonsils, but also from the back wall of the pharynx) to determine the presence oftype A streptococcus bacteria ( Streptococcus ). This is the surest way to distinguish between scarlet fever and rubella or measles that are viral.

Blood laboratory testing is also helpful. In the initial stage of the disease, the morphology of neutrophils (NEU) is elevated - which may indicate an acute bacterial infection, significantly accelerated ESR (Biernacki's test is indicative of an infection), and the ASO test is positive (above the titer 1: 200). After a few weeks, eosinophils appear in large numbers in the blood.

Scarlet fever is differentiated from diseases such as:

  • rubella
  • measles
  • staphylococcal infection
  • toxic shock syndrome
  • Kawasaki disease

Scarlet fever: treatment

In scarlet fever it is absolutely necessary to administer antibiotics to combat streptococci. When there were no antibiotics,scarlet feverwas a very serious disease, even fatal. That is why the correct diagnosis and treatment of scarlet fever is so important.

Doctors usually recommend a ten-day treatment. The antibiotic must be administered very precisely, adhering to the prescribed times, so that the concentration of the drug in the blood remains constant. Take all your prescribed tablets, even if your symptoms have disappeared. Untreated or poorly treated scarlet fever causes serious complications:

  • purulent lymphadenitis
  • otitis
  • acute glomerulonephritis
  • streptococcal arthritis
  • rheumatic fever
  • myocarditis

There is no scarlet fever vaccine, so to prevent the disease, you should strictly follow good hygiene practices and wash your hands frequently.If there have been cases of scarlet fever in kindergarten or at school, it is safer to keep the child at home for a few days.

Having scarlet fever does not give you immunity. You can get sick with it several times in childhood and even in adulthood. Most cases of scarlet fever occur in the fall and winter.

AuthorAgnieszka Paculanka Editor for over twenty years, writing about he alth and beauty. Participant of scientific and training workshops for journalists from the Quo vadis medicina? and specialist seminars for journalists from the Medicinaria series organized by the Journalists for He alth Association.

Category:

Infectious diseases