Scarlet fever, a fever in children you should be aware of

Have you had any experiences when your little one has scarlet fever? This fever is not as beautiful as its name, because if it is not handled properly it will cause various complications.

Fever is the body's mechanism for fighting infection. Infection can be a disorder of disease or something else. For this you need to understand how to treat fever in children. At home, it is also imperative that you provide a thermometer to measure the child's temperature most accurately.

One thing that is no less important is that you have to know some of the fevers that your baby may experience. Have you ever heard of scarlet fever? This one fever is clearly different from the common fever, and this one fever is contagious.

What is scarlet fever and what are the symptoms?

Scarlet fever aka scarlet fever or also known as scarlatina is a disease caused by group A bacterial infection with streptococcus beta hemolyticus. dengue, roseola infantum, kawasaki, or others.

Everyone is at risk for scarlet fever. However, children 5 to 18 years of age are the most common with scarlet fever. Usually, this disease will begin with features such as fever, sore throat, vomiting, headache, weakness, and chills.

Within 12-24 hours usually will develop a characteristic rash. The rash will turn pale when pressed. This rash will first appear on the neck, chest, then spread throughout the body within 24 hours. A few days later, the rash disappears and the child's skin feels like sandpaper or rough, then turns black.

In a doctor's examination, a child with fever will have tonsils that look enlarged, reddish, and will also find a grayish white appearance in them. The tongue will appear very red and swollen, which is the hallmark of scarlet fever. It is not surprising that it ended up being named strawberry tongue .

Distinguishing scarlet fever from measles

Although at first scarlet fever looks like measles, it can be distinguished by the course of the disease. For example, measles is always accompanied by a cold cough, conjunctivitis or inflammation of the eye, and the doctor's examination will find coplik spots.

Whereas in scarlet fever, another symptom that accompanies it is sore throat. Judging from the rash is different, in measles the rash will appear from behind the ear, while scarlet fever will appear on the neck.

Prevent scarlet fever in simple ways

For prevention, there are a number of things you need to pay attention to. This is as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, namely by keeping the environment and self clean. Therefore, you as a parent are obliged to introduce and familiarize children to do the 4 things below.

• Wash your hands properly regularly
• Avoid sharing glasses or cutlery with other people
• Use a mask when the child has a cough or cold
• Teach children to cover their mouth and nose when sneezing

Scarlet fever should not be considered a 'trivial' disease as it can present a variety of complications. Starting from tonsil abscess, middle ear canal infection, to rheumatic fever in the heart and acute glomerulonephritis in the kidneys. Death can occur from complications of this magnitude.

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