Scarlet fever is an infectious disease that manifests itself in a rash

Scarlet fever is an infectious disease that is accompanied by a rash, but unlike measles, rubella, it is caused not by a virus, but by a bacterium - beta-hemolytic streptococcus.

You can get scarlet fever not only from a scarlet fever patient, but also from a sore throat (it too is caused by a streptococcus), and also from the carrier of a bacterium, that is, a person who has streptococci living in the nasopharynx and is released into the environment, but the person is not ill at the same time .

Scarlet fever usually affects children 3-10 years old, when they "get" the pathogen by airborne droplets (streptococcus lives in the air, but it quickly dies at high temperature and solar radiation). Can fall ill and adults. At them entrance gates of a streptococcus can be wound or the burnt surface, the damaged patrimonial ways.

How is scarlet fever manifested?

Scarlet fever is a disease that has an average incubation period. This is 2-12 days (an average of 3-7 days). There is a typical and atypical form of scarlet fever.

A typical scarlet fever is a disease that begins with a rise in temperature to high figures, weakness, chills, headache. Later, there is a pain in the throat, which increases with swallowing, and the appetite decreases. If you look at the tonsils, you can see that they are red, loose, they can have both white dots and dark raids that are not removed (these are areas of dead tissue of the tonsils).

After a few hours (approximately should pass a little less than half a day) There is a rash, and then there is a suspicion that the disease is scarlet fever. What it is she, say the following signs of the rash:

Rash small, red;

Appears on the reddened skin;

- it is not in the nasolabial triangle;

- it is the most intense at first on the neck, shoulders and hips, then there is a noticeable accumulation of the maximum number of elements in the area of the elbows and axillary pits;

- often accompanied by itching.

The rash builds up, its greatest number is observed on the second and third days, then it gradually begins to decrease, in its place there are thin crusts (not like in the wound, this is called peeling), they disappear, after them there is no trace.

In addition to the rash and red throat, you can see another characteristic for scarlet fever, for which the disease and got its name. It's a crimson tongue. This symptom appears on day 3-4, before that it is coated with a white coating.

Depending on the temperature level, the severity of sore throat and rash secrete a mild, moderate, severe toxic and severe septic form of the disease.

Complications of scarlet fever

1) Kidney disease (nephritis).

2) Inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis).

3) Otitis.

4) Sinusites.

5) Streptococcal sepsis.

6) Phlegmon, developing from the lymph nodes.

Treatment of scarlet fever

1. Since scarlet fever is a bacterial disease , antibiotics are necessary for its treatment. For mild and moderate forms, antibiotics can be taken in the form of tablets (preparations "Flemoxin", "Amoxil"), and in severe forms, hospitalization is necessary, followed by the introduction of antibacterial drugs intramuscularly or intravenously ("Ceftriaxone", "Cefazolin" and other drugs).

2. For the period before the normalization of the temperature, bed rest is necessary to avoid complications in the heart as much as possible.

3. Rinse throat with solutions of antiseptics ("Furacilin", "Furasol", alcohol solution "Chlorophyllipt").

4. To reduce the temperature - syrups "Nayz", "Efferalgan", "Nurofen" and others.

Scarlet fever. Prevention

Prevention is only nonspecific, that is, there is no vaccine from it. In order to protect the child from scarlet fever, you need to treat your own sore throats or those conditions that are accompanied by a lesion of the mucous throat in time. If you know about the disease of someone from the children's team, you can not allow the child to communicate with him.