scarlet fever

[alicia-w]

does anyone know anything about this disease. The 17-year-old son of a friend has been diagnosed with it and she's stunned.

any help is greatly appreciated.

[gtalum]

Wikipedia is not by itself an authoritative source, but it can be a great place to start.

The most important thing about scarlet fever is that it can turn into rheumatic fever if untreated. And that is very very bad.

Scarlet fever is usually brought on by leaving strep throat illnesses go untreated for too long.

[alicia-w]

i told her it was basically strep throat with a rash, but all of the throat cultures came back negative for strep. that's why it went untreated before yesterday. the peeling skin on the fingers was the grossest part. he's being treated with antibiotics. i went to the CDC website and they have a lot of info. I guess I'm curious about the risk of infecting others.

[sweetpea]

I had rheumatic fever twice when I was 11 and then again at 15, not a fun thing. Was in the hospital for a total of about 4 weeks. They never did figure out how I got it. I do know it didn't start with scarlet fever though. I hope he gets better soon, at least they caught it before it turned to rheumatic fever.

[Pburgh]

Both of my daughters had it when they were little. (4 and 6) The big give away that they had it was the facial mask and the peeling fingers. They were both treated with antibiotics and were fine. It's my understanding that it is contagious thru bodily fluids. They had it about the same time and you know how kids are!!!!

[Shelby6977]

Yikes!!! Thank goodness I never had it. I seemed to have gotten lucky with quite a few illnesses!!! Of course, as I am writing this I am suffering with some type of respiratory flu that is raging through Brevard County!! Flu shot didnt save me from THIS one.....

[Stephanie]

I was going to post what gtalum did.