|
Scarlet fever, also called scarlatina in older literature,〔 is an infectious disease which most commonly affects children. Signs and symptoms include sore throat, fever, and a characteristic red rash. Scarlet fever is usually spread by inhalation. No vaccine is known, 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'' (group A streptococci) when it is infected by a certain bacteriophage. Before the availability of antibiotics, scarlet fever was a major cause of death across the globe. It also sometimes caused late complications, such as glomerulo-nephritis and endocarditis leading to heart valve disease, all of which were protracted and often fatal afflictions at the time. Strains of group A streptococci that produce the erythrogenic toxin are not inherently more dangerous than other strains that do not; they are merely more easily diagnosed because of the characteristic rash. ==Signs and symptoms== Scarlet fever is characterized by: *Sore throat *Fever *Bright red tongue with a "strawberry" appearance *Forchheimer spots (fleeting small, red spots on the soft palate) *Paranoia *Hallucinations *A characteristic rash, which: * *is fine, red, and rough-textured, * *blanches upon pressure, * *appears 12–72 hours after the fever starts, * *generally begins on the chest and armpits and behind the ears but may also appear in the groin, * *on the face, often shows as red cheeks with a characteristic pale area around the mouth (circumoral pallor), * *is worse in the skin folds (so-called Pastia's lines, where the rash runs together in the armpits and groin, appears and can persist after the rash is gone), * *may spread to cover the uvula, and * *begins to fade three to four days after onset, upon which desquamation (peeling) begins. "This phase begins with flakes peeling from the face. Peeling from the palms and around the fingers occurs about a week later." Peeling also occurs in the axilla, the groin, and the tips of fingers and toes〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Scarlet Fever )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Scarlet fever」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|