Who discovered scarlet fever?
You have a month. Why not research this yourself? In 1685 scarlet fever was recognized as a separate disease and named by an English physician, Thomas Sydenham. It existed before then, of course, but was thought to be a variation of measles. Treatment for it at the time was belladonna (as a prophylactic), echinacea (Dr. Webster) and aconite. Although Alexander Fleming is credited with having discovered penicillin in 1928, Howard Walter Florey is credited with the practical application of penicillin as a medication in the early 1940s. It was Dr. Cecil Paine, a former student of Dr, Fleming who first demonstrated the medical value of penicillin but Paine never published his results. He did, however, discuss his findings with Florey who capitalized on them. Eventually, Dr. Florey had the opportunity use penicillin to treat a Strep infection and prove its value. It was later used to treat scarlet fever during WWI. There’s no “antidote”. Antidotes are for poisons.
