Scarlet Fever

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

A friendly family have all come down with scarlet fever. Pretty unusual right? I've never come across it in my life.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I remember when DS #2 got Scarlet Fever. This was back in the 1980s. However, even then it was significantly different from my mother's childhood days , back in the early 40s. I remember the doctor told me it was called Scarletina-but it was the same as Scarlet Fever. He told me that over the years, it had "morphed" (or whatever) into being much less dangerous than it had in my mother's time. He gave Matthew some antibiotics, and gave some to my other son also, as a precaution. But when I told my mother that he had Scarlet Fever, she freaked out and said I must have heard wrong, that no doubt he'd have been put in the hospital. My experience was that it was very mild. Like I said, that was a generation ago. I find it interesting, but not surprising, that it's sort of faded out in this generation.

 

[leahgoogle]

It occurs in a small percentage of people with strep throat. It's caused by Group A Strep Bacteria.

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

My nieces ended up with it during a family trip to Disney about 10 years ago.
They both went to urgent care and were given antibiotics and told to hold off on going to the parks until the next day.
It apparently can happen due to strep throat which they apparently got very fast because they had both been fine the day before.
The rest of the trip they were not feeling that great but they were no longer contagious so we all still went to the parks.

 

[chrisney]

Fortunately. now very rare and rarely a big deal. However, that was NOT the case in the past. Scarlet Fever was the cause of massive heart problems with my mother. She died when I was three. When I was born, there was an "incubator" in the room because the doctors didn't expect her to make it, and they wanted to save me. My children wondered why I was so crazed about them and sore throats...poor kids were cultured each and every time.

 

[dreamer17555]

So my son is autistic and really bad about telling anyone when he is sick. He has had scarlet fever twice and both times I knew he was sick by spotting the rash because he didn't tell anyone his throat hurt (strep). Its treated with antibiotics and kept at home for 24 hours same as strep

 

[ronandannette]

My DS contracted it as a toddler, at a ski resort that was a major international destination. At the time (not sure about nowadays) scarlet fever was a communicable disease that had to be reported to our national health organization and contact-traced. We got a call a day or two after we returned home to notify us and advise us to go into quarantine. Sure enough, within a few more hours DS had a rising fever and tell-tale rash. None of the rest of us got sick and blessedly, DS recovered easily with no permanent damage.

 

[disykat]

One of my sons had it when he was about 12. The rash showed up a few hours after the appointment where he was diagnosed with Strep throat. I don't even remember if he saw the doc again because he had already started the antibiotics. I remember calling because I thought he had an allergy to the meds, but it's been almost 20 years and either DH took him in to be checked while I was at work or we just did it over the phone. {Weird that I don't remember, but I had just gone back to work full time so DH had more sick leave and did all the doctor's appts. during their junior high years!) Basically, he was home for a few days on antibiotics and no one caught it. I was glad I had my dad (a former pediatrician) to call because hearing the words "scarlet fever" was kind of scary!

 

[Skywalker3]

My daughter had scarlet fever several years ago, she was a young teen. she'd had very high fever for days, Even with all the various fever reducing meds, treatments, it stayed around 100-101ish, would ebb, but come back, originally not positive for flu/strep, etc. several days into this, woke up, and from the neck down was scarlet red, like a lobster. It was so scary looking. Strep test was then positive....then got meds and recovered. It just made me think of all the historical reports you hear of people dying from scarlet fever....scary and horrible to not have any medicine/treatments.

 

[weewuvvdisney]

I remember being told I had Scarlet Fever. It was in the early 60's when we still had doctor visits at home. Favorite Doctor came, told my Mom I had Scarlet Fever and gave me a needle in my behind and slapped on a tiny bandaid. Don't remember anything really other than the needle. Ouch!