Scarlet fever is an infectious disease which most commonly affects 4-8 year old children. Symptoms include sore throat, fever and a characteristic red rash. It is usually spread by inhalation. There is no vaccine, but the disease is effectively treated with antibiotics.
Before the availability of antibiotics, scarlet fever was a major cause of death. It could also cause late complications such as glomerulonephritis and endocarditis leading to heart valve disease, all of which were protracted and often fatal afflictions at the time.
Scarlet fever is caused by erythrogenic toxin, a substance produced by the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes (group A strep.) when infected by a certain bacteriophage.
The term scarlatina may be used interchangeably with scarlet fever, though it is most often used to indicate the less acute form of scarlet fever seen since the beginning of the twentieth century.
Read more about Scarlet Fever: Epidemiology, Microbiology, Symptoms and Signs, Diagnosis, Complications, Treatment, History, Persons Who Suffered From Scarlet Fever
Famous quotes containing the words scarlet and/or fever:
“when I see the beauty of your face,
Ye been so scarlet red about your eyen,
It maketh all my dreade for to dyen;”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Y’know Pete, back where I come from folks call that love stuff “quick poison” or “slow poison.” If it’s quick poison it hurts you all over real bad like a shock of electricity. But if it’s slow poison, well, it’s like a fever that aches in your bones for a thousand years.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)