Alphabetic Guide to Child Care - Scarlet fever

Scarlet Fever

Scarlet fever used to be a disease that everyone dreaded. It is highly contagious, and can result in severe aftereffects like rheumatic fever, or the kidney disease known as nephritis.

It is now known that scarlet fever is simply a streptococcal infection—a strain of a specific organism that also causes a diffuse red rash. It can be dealt with quite simply by your physician, the usual treatment being a ten-day course of penicillin, which cures the streptococcal infection and prevents most complications.