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Scarlet Fever
Scarlet fever is caused by streptococcal infection. Its characteristics include bright red tongue, fever and sore throat. Questions including symptoms, diagnosis, causes and treatments can be found here.
186 Questions
Why is scarlet fever most common in Mexico?
It isn't. There have been outbreaks of scarlet fever (a.k.a. scarlatine) in Asia and the United Kingdom (with over 20,000 cases reported during 2016 in the U.K.); in Mexico there were less than 3000 cases reported during 2017 -- considering Mexico has a population of 128 million, this is a manageable level of infection.
The most probable cause is climate change, which has resulted in new strains of the Streptococcus pyogenesspreading over several regions around the world; the United States and Europe are no exception.
What part of the heart is usually damaged by scarlet fever or syphilis?
The inner epithelial layer of the heart (Endocardium) can become inflamed from bacterial infections such as strep throat resulting in endocarditis.
Scarlet fever iscausedby Gram Positive cocci,non motile,catalase negative,oxidase negative streptococcus pyogenes of Lancefield group A having beta haemolysis on Blood agar.The disease occur mainly in Human where it's usual habitat is Upper respiratory tract.The scarlet fever is also called as Septic sore throat,puerperal fever,rheumatic fever etc.Antibiotics are used to kill the bacteria that causes the throat infection. This is crucial to prevent rheumatic fever, a serious complication of strep throat and scarlet fever.
With proper antibiotic treatment, the symptoms of scarlet fever should get better quickly. However, the rash can last for up to 2 - 3 weeks before it fully goes away.
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Can you have scarlet fever without having a rash?
No. Scarlet fever (called Scarlatina in days gone by) is defined as a particular rash in the setting of a proven streptococcal infection. Usually, this is strep pharyngitis (sore throat), but it can be any strep infection (skin, etc). The rash is pretty classic, involving the face with sparing of the area around the mouth and lips (peri-oral pallor - because the area looks pale compared to the rest of the face), and involving the creased areas more than others (armpits, groin folds, etc). The rash also feels very rough to the touch - leading it to be called a "sandpaper rash." I saw a patient with this last week :)
