Scarlet fever is an acute infectious disease characterized by general intoxication, fever, inflammation of the palatine tonsils and a pinpoint rash all over the body. Basically, scarlet fever occurs in children, adults are sick much less often.
The causative agent is hemolytic streptococcus, most often Streptococcus pyogenes. The main symptoms of scarlet fever are not caused by streptococcus itself, but by the toxin that bacteria secrete into the blood.
Sources of the causative agent of infection are a patient with scarlet fever or any other clinical form of streptococcal infection and bacterial carrier. Often with unexpressed or unclear symptoms, scarlet fever is taken for banal angina, and the child is a hotbed of potential infection for other children.
Children aged 3 to 10 years most often seek medical help, which is due to the imperfection of immune mechanisms of body protection. Today we will look at scarlet fever in more detail, learn the first symptoms of the disease in children, see photos, as well as methods of treatment and prevention.
Reasons for
The name of the disease comes from Latin and literally means "bright red", apparently because of the most obvious symptom of scarlet fever - a characteristic red rash. Scarlet fever is a bacterial disease caused by group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus, which also causes other streptococcal infections - angina, chronic tonsillitis, rheumatism, acute glomerulonephritis, streptodermia, erysipelas, etc.
Patients with scarlet fever are the most dangerous in the first few days of the disease, the probability of transmission of infection completely disappears three weeks after the deployment of clinical symptoms.
The main ways of infection of are:
- airborne( for example, when talking and when sneezing);
- household( through underwear, toys, and other household items);
- food( through food).
Factors contributing to the development of disease:
- cold season( autumn, winter);
- chronic diseases of the tonsils, pharynx;
- acute viral infections( acute respiratory viral infection, influenza);
- low immunity.
A person with a 1 to 22 day illness is contagious. The most common illnesses are sick in the autumn-winter period.
Symptoms of scarlet fever in children
Scarlet fever occurs mainly in children, the symptoms begin to appear 1-7 days after infection - this is the incubation period of scarlet fever. At this time, the microbe that gets into the body multiplies and actively releases toxins, but there are no manifestations of the disease yet.
The disease begins acutely - a sharp rise in temperature and severe sore throat. Also, the child starts to have a headache, chills begin and a general malaise. Significant intoxication may cause vomiting. With scarlet fever, children complain of sore throats when swallowing, so the doctor usually reveals a defeat of the tonsils - angina.
By the end of the first day from the onset of the disease, a pink pap smear appears on the cheeks, trunk and extremities on the background of hyperemic skin. It first appears in the neck, then spreads to the back and upper chest.
The rash is most intense in the area of the skin folds of the elbows and armpits. Often it is accompanied by itching. The patient's face "burns", but around the mouth and nose there is a pale nasolabial triangle of intact skin( Filatov's symptom).When pressing on the site of the rash, the rash disappears for a while, but then reappears.
It is the rash in scarlet fever in children that is the main, most pathogenic symptom, and is explained by the action of erythrogenic toxin on small-calibrated vessels in both the skin and in other organs.
Summing up, we will single out the first signs of the disease:
- rapid rise in temperature to 39-40C;
- hyperemia of the posterior pharyngeal wall, tonsils, arches of the tongue, soft palate;
- headache, aching muscles, weakness;
- increased mobility or, conversely, apathy and drowsiness;
- vomiting, tachycardia;
- sore throat, anterior anterior lymph nodes;
- redness of the tongue and hypertrophy of its papillae.
By the 3-5th day of the disease, the patient's well-being improves, the body temperature starts to decrease gradually. Rashes in scarlet fever occur about a week after the onset of the disease, leaving behind a strong peeling of the skin, which from the surface of the feet and palms peel off entire layers. The intensity of peeling directly depends on the abundance and duration of the rash. Scarlet fever in children, the symptoms of which bring a lot of discomfort to the infected child, is a serious illness, so you should contact the doctor in time to avoid complications. Adults sometimes have an erased form of the disease, characterized by a slight intoxication, mild catarrh of the pharynx and a scanty, pale, short-term rash.
Treatment of scarlet fever
Light forms of scarlet fever are treated at home, heavy - in the hospital.
Patients prescribed a sparing diet, a ten-day bed rest and a course of taking multivitamins. The child needs to drink more to remove toxins from the body. After the acute symptoms subsided, the transition to normal diet is gradually carried out.
The drug of choice for treatment and elimination of the cause of scarlet fever is penicillin, it is prescribed by the course for 10 days. In case of an allergy to penicillin, treatment should be done with other antibiotics - erythromycin and cefazolin. In addition to antibiotics, drugs are prescribed - antihistamines, calcium preparations, vitamin C in elevated doses.
Scarlet fever refers to diseases that, with timely antibiotic treatment, almost always end safely, and without treatment - almost always result in severe complications. A mandatory rule for the successful treatment of scarlet fever in any form is compliance with all prescribed by the doctor recommendations.
Visiting children who have had this illness, pre-school institutions and the first two classes of schools is allowed after additional isolation at home within 12 days after recovery.
Complications of
If the first signs of scarlet fever in children do not cause fears in adults, and they did not turn to the doctor in time, complications can arise.
Infection can spread from the tonsils, causing otitis media, sinusitis, lymphadenitis. Late complications of scarlet fever associated with infectious-alergic mechanisms( carditis, arthritis, nephritis of autoimmune genesis).In the overwhelming majority of cases with timely treatment and adequate antibiotic therapy, the disease has a favorable prognosis, without development of consequences.
Prevention of scarlet fever in children
General measures for the prevention of scarlet fever include the timely detection of patients and carriers of infection, their proper isolation from the team, the implementation of quarantine measures.
A sick child should be isolated in a separate room, it should be provided with separate things and utensils. Isolation can cease only after full recovery. People who have been in contact with a scarlet fever( for example, in a kindergarten group) are being quarantined for 7 days.