Scarlet fever is an infectious disease which most commonly affects 4-8 year old children. Symptoms include sore throat, fever and a characteristic red rash. Scarlet fever is usually spread by inhalation. There is no vaccine, but the disease is effectively treated with antibiotics. Most of the clinical features are caused by erythrogenic toxin, a substance produced by the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes when infected by a certain bacteriophage. Before the availability of antibiotics, scarlet fever was a major cause of death. It could also cause late complications such as glomerulonephritis and endocarditis leading to heart valve disease, all of which were protracted and often fatal afflictions at the time. It is important to recognize that strains of Group A Strep which produce the erythrogenic toxin are not inherently more dangerous than other strains which do not but are more easily diagnosed as such because of the characteristic rash. Wikipedia [ - ]

Scarlet fever is an infectious disease which most commonly affects 4-8 year old children... [ + ]