Last week my three year old grandson had Scarlet Fever. Yeah. I sorta freaked when I heard. But I was also really surprised. My reaction was much like that of Andrea's who said when she heard about it: "Is that still around? Yikes! I thought that went out with washboards and butter churns." Well, apparently people DO still get it, and it seems to be on the rise.
The thing is, it is no more and no less dangerous than strep throat. Actually it comes from the same bacteria.
While I often have concerns about the over use of anti-biotics, in this case I was very grateful that our little boy could get appropriate medical care and get this under control relatively quickly. He's on the mend now and they do not expect any residual effects from the illness.
5 comments:
Yup--Scarlet Fever is just strep that comes along with a rash. But still, even if its "just" strep, its still miserable. I'm so glad to hear that he's on the mend.
We've had a ton of strep in the last year. We suspect a neighbor child is a carrier.
Yikes! I'm glad he is doing better.
Still sounds scary! What a cute little guy!
It scares me how many "old" diseases are coming back around nowadays. I remember reading some years ago that tuberculosis was becoming more frequent, after however many years as a disease people used to get "back in the day".
Not a resistant form, I presume? Thank goodness.
I had scarlet fever when I was 8, back in 1977 or so. I remember it well because I woke up sick one morning, I was feverish, my mom put me in the tub to cool me down - and she saw the rash and guessed what it was.
The doctor confirmed the diagnosis.
And all the while, I sat there, quietly freaking out, because only a couple months before I had finished a book about a girl who, like Helen Keller, was blind and deaf - and she got that way as a sequelae to having had scarlet fever. So I figured that was likely to happen to me.
The doctor could see I was agitated, and asked what was wrong. I told him, and he very kindly and politely explained that I didn't need to worry about it because we had antibiotics now (obviously, he was right - in a couple days I was better and back in school).
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