Scarlet Fever

It will be on her medical records if she saw a doctor at the time.

Hope they both recover soon Erica23

Best wishes to the little chap, Erica 23, and warm thoughts to all of you.

I has it myself in the early 1950s as a toddler and apparently was very ill. I didn't hear of it while my brood were growing up (late 1960s to 2006) and then, about 11 years ago, my step-grandaughter caught it at the age of 7 along with a bunch of kids at her school.

Is it OK to ask which county the little boy is in?

You've made me wonder if some of these illnesses hibernate across some generations.

My older children (born in the 70s) all had scarletina - was that related?

No neither of mine had it in the 80s 90s My husband had it but that was back in the 60s it stopped him starting infants on time
Hope your family are soon better

I had it as a child in London. It was quite common then. 1950s.

Wishing your grandson all the best Erica23. Isn’t it frightening - what is happening now, I wonder if it has anything to do with lockdown and children not mixing with others to acquire immunity.

My little granddaughter was very poorly last Christmas with pneumonia- she was a lockdown baby and hadn’t mixed with hardly anybody but once her sibling went back to school, she was unwell for a long time.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Poppyred

Wishing your grandson all the best Erica23. Isn’t it frightening - what is happening now, I wonder if it has anything to do with lockdown and children not mixing with others to acquire immunity.

My little granddaughter was very poorly last Christmas with pneumonia- she was a lockdown baby and hadn’t mixed with hardly anybody but once her sibling went back to school, she was unwell for a long time.

Immunity is acquired by vaccination or being ill. It's a myth that immunity can be acquired just by mixing. In any case, scarlet fever is caused by a bacterial infection.

Oh! aren’t you clever Growstuff!

I don’t think you are quite right there Growstuff, I became immune to TB because my mother did the shopping for people in the TB hospital when I grew up.

Poppyred

Oh! aren’t you clever Growstuff!

No! But I know that scarlet fever is caused by a bacterial infection and you can't build up immunity to bacteria. I also know that "building up an immunity" to viruses is a myth. Nobody needs to be a rocket scientist to know that.

midgey

I don’t think you are quite right there Growstuff, I became immune to TB because my mother did the shopping for people in the TB hospital when I grew up.

How do you know that?

Did your mother have TB and pass it on to you? Is that how you became immune?

Many children have been seriously Ill with hepatitis since lockdown, some have needed liver transplants.

WHO organisations think the reason old be due to children not being exposed to normal childhood viruses because of lockdown.

Just saying……

Wishing your grandson a speedy recovery Erica23.
No my lads never had it,they were born in the early 80s and i remember it was rife in the late 80s.

We’re in the North East but I haven’t heard of any more school closures so maybe just a localized thing. He doesn’t seem too bad and has antibiotics so hopefully it’s short lived.

I think it's unusual for adults to catch Scarlet Fever. My father had it in the late 1930s and was confined to the local isolation hospital. He was in his early 20s and all the other patients were children! No antibiotics in those days.

So I hope your daughter doesn't have it Erica, but at least there's better treatment for it now.

The old Isolation Hospitals were things of wonder. I spoke to an older lady some years back who was in one for several months in the 1930s (I assume t.b.). They clearly did their job because I met her when she was t'other side of 80.

Her parents used to do an hour's walk out from their village to stand beyond the verandah and talk with her every week or so.

My Son had it aged 2 in 1989. My DM diagnosed it. He got antibiotics. DGS2 has just had it - he had croup, URTI then scarlet fever. He got penicillin for it and has now recovered. He is 4 and had a horrible rash. Another child at nursery has it now. The doctor said lots of children his age who were locked down from childminding, baby groups and nursery are now experiencing many different viruses and bacteria that they haven't gained immunity from by not mixing with other children. My MiL had it and developed rheumatic fever many many years ago. She needed a valve replacement in her late 60s because of it.

Poppyred

Many children have been seriously Ill with hepatitis since lockdown, some have needed liver transplants.

WHO organisations think the reason old be due to children not being exposed to normal childhood viruses because of lockdown.

Just saying……

Scientists have speculated that this is partially caused by a lack of immunity to adenovirus, which (not surprisingly) is a virus.

Just saying ...

Here’s the information from NICE - apparently scarlet fever is much less common than it was in the past, but has been increasing since 2013/14. Pandemic years would see less because of the lack of contact between children. It is a bacterial infection, not a virus, and it is the same infection as scarletina.

cks.nice.org.uk/topics/scarlet-fever/background-information/prevalence/

growstuff - you can develop immunity to bacterial infections as well as viral ones. Some of the vaccines given currently are against bacterial meningitis and pneumonia as well as diphtheria. Also, you can develop immunity without actually becoming ill - all the symptomless cases of Covid are an example. Polio didn’t often cause paralysis when hygiene was poor and children were exposed at a young age- they had no symptoms but were actually infected.

Some people carry Strep A in their nose or throat without symptoms but if it gets into another part of their body or into bloodstream, they may become ill. People with weakened immune system or who have another infection may be more at risk.

Apart from specific immunity to various diseases, exposure to infection triggers various non-specific responses in the body which may protect against other infections.

When I was a child in the early fifties, scarlet fever meant immediate removal to an isolation hospital and disinfection of the patient’s domestic environment. It was feared to some extent, like diphtheria. In the early seventies my four year old son contracted scarletena, a mild form of scarlet fever. He was very poorly but treated at home and made a good recovery. None of the children he mixed with seemed to succumb to it.

I had Scarlet Fever (known as Scarletina) 4 years ago, at the age of 59