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This mild bacterial infection mostly affects children between 4 and 10 years. The main symptoms of scarlet fever are difficulty swallowing, glands at the base of the jaw, and fever.
Scarlet fever: is it dangerous?
Scarlet fever is a mild bacterial infection. It is quite rare in babies and rather affects children between 4 and 10 years old. It is a variant of angina caused by a variety of streptococci (hemolytics), a bacteria that releases toxins into the body and causes a red rash all over the body.
The rash: what are the first symptoms?
Baby can’t swallow anything anymore. He has ganglia at the base of the jaw lower, complains of a sore throat and stomach, and sometimes vomits. At the same time, his fever rises sharply to 39 ° or 40 ° C. After 24 or 48 hours, the first small red pimples appear in patches, first on the chest, armpits, upper thighs, in the folds of the elbows, knees, behind the ears, then the rash spreads all over the place. back and stomach.
Baby may also have pimples on the face, except around the mouth: this is the «Masque de la scarlatine». If you press on her skin with your hand, she turns white. It settles in one push. The next day, the child is all red with a slightly grainy skin to the touch. Occasionally, the pimples are itchy. The tongue, white at first, takes on a characteristic appearance on the 6th day with a bright red V-shaped rash, resembling a strawberry.
What is desquamation?
Around the 6th day, the rash begins to disappear to give way to the last phase of the disease: desquamation. On the parts of the body where the rash first appeared, the pimples are replaced by small scales, which will gradually peel off.
After a week, with good treatment, the sores and fever disappear. The disease ends when large pieces of skin break off from the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
Contagion: how did my child get scarlet fever?
Scarlet fever is a contagious illness. Contamination occurs by airway (coughing, postilions, sneezing from a sick person or child) or by contact with contaminated objects like cups or toys. This contagiousness of scarlet fever means that there are often epidemics, particularly in autumn-winter in schools.
Your child can pass this strep two to five days before the first signs of the disease appear and still for two or three weeks if not treated. This duration of contagiousness is reduced to 48 hours if he takes the drugs prescribed by the doctor.
Pimples, fever, plaques: a consultation is required
There is no urgency, but it is better to consult, if only to rule out another, more serious illness. Your doctor or pediatrician will examine your child, feel their neck for the presence of lymph nodes, and most importantly, observe their throat and tongue for characteristic pimples. If it is bright red, grainy, painful, andunV appears in demarcation, at the bottom, there is every chance that it is a scarlet fever.
To confirm his diagnosis and the presence of streptococcus, he will take a few cells from the back of the throat with a swab, before immersing them in a reactive liquid. Rest assured, this quick little test, the streptotest, is totally painless. And in less than five minutes, your doctor will know if this infection is bacterial or just viral. He will thus be able to rule out the hypothesis of another disease which would also give rise to pimples and fever.
Treatment: how to treat baby scarlet fever?
As with any bacterial infection, antibiotics (Penicillin, Amoxicillin or Macrolide in case of allergy) are useful for six days. Your doctor will also prescribe paracetamol if the child does not cope with the fever. Do not stop treatment, even if you see improvement, it could cause a relapse or complications and make the bacteria responsible resistant to antibiotics. Unfortunately, you cannot get immunized against this disease and some people can get scarlet fever. several times in their life.
For your part, as long as your child is having difficulty swallowing, grind his food, favor soups, yogurts and compotes, and give him plenty of water to drink.
There are no vaccines against scarlet fever, just wash baby’s hands often and avoid contact with other infected people.
Scarlet fever: rare complications
In France, complications are rare because they mainly concern untreated scarlet fever. Streptococcus may therefore be responsible neck lymph node abscess, kidney damage or rheumatic fever.
Once formidable, today’s scarlet fever is no longer as large and typical. They more often take attenuated, incomplete forms which can be limited to a not very intense and short-lived rash that it is moreover difficult to attribute from the outset to scarlet fever. Indeed, many viral diseases, as well as reactions of intolerance to drugs give rise to rashes of scarlatiniform type.