What to do about scarlet fever?
I can’t understand the need for all the secrecy. Scarlet fever is something that sometimes happens if a case of strep throat gets out of control, although sometimes there isn’t a sore throat and the rash just shows up. It can be treated easily enough with antibiotics, and usually is more a misery to the child than a danger. Since your daughter sits next to the sick child’s presumably healthy sibling, I think the chances of infection would be extremely low- at least not much worse than normal circumstances. The bacteria are everywhere, and the usual handwashing and sanitary practices are the best protection out there. The rash itself is caused by the toxin produced by the strep bacteria. Some folks are sensitive to it, some are not. So children within the same family can have strep throat, and only one develops the scarlet fever rash. They are one and the same disease. We have two names for them because for many years before we actually could and did identify the bacteria, people did no
