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Scarlet Fever Survivors
This project is for those who SURVIVED Scarlet Fever.
If they Died from Scarlet Fever, add to: Scarlet Fever in the Cause of Death Portal.
Be sure to list or include any complications that may have resulted in the person's About section, such as blindness, hearing loss or deafness, etc.
"Scarlet fever (also called scarlatina in older literature) is an infectious disease which most commonly affects children. Symptoms include sore throat, fever and a characteristic red rash. Scarlet fever is usually spread by inhalation.
Once called scarlatina, scarlet fever is an acute contagious exotoxin-mediated disease of childhood, caused by group A streptococcal bacteria. Though most commonly affects children aged between 4 to 8 years, the disease can occur in any age group.
While scarlet fever is in fact an advanced manifestation of strep throat (which by definition is the infection of the pharynx by a bacteria of the Streptococcus genre), epidemiology studies tell us that the majority of throat infections -i. e. pharyngitis- are caused by viruses. 90% of pharyngitis in adults are caused by viruses, not bacteria, and while that number can vary depending on the region, it is usually a minority of cases that are caused by bacteria. It is also true that a case of viral pharyngitis can get a secondary bacterial infection (called "superinfection" or "overinfection"), but this is not very frequent.
Once considered a serious disease with high rate of mortality and morbidity, today, scarlet fever infection is a less threatening condition as modern antibiotics play vital role to make the disease follow a benign course. If left untreated, the illness can sometimes lead to serious conditions affecting the heart and kidneys. The most common treatment for scarlet fever is a ten day course of antibiotics and it usually resolves without complications following early and appropriate treatment.
Scarlet fever still remains a threat today, particularly in developing countries, but nowhere today is it as severe a disease as it was during that frightening time in the middle of the nineteenth century. However, the current outbreak in China shows how quickly this situation can change, as they’ve seen a quadrupling in the number of cases in 2011 compared to previous years and several fatalities.
People who Had Scarlet Fever and Survived:
- Thomas Edison (survived, but may have resulted in his partial deafness)
- Helen Keller (survived, but lost her sight & hearing)
- Margery Williams’ children’s book The Velveteen Rabbit focuses on the disease
- Willie Lincoln (died); father, Abraham, may have had a form of scarlet fever
- William Dean Howells (survived)
Links to Additional Reading:
- Infectious Diseases in History
- If for some reason antibiotics were no longer available in the world, would Scarlet Fever once again become a common killer instead of the rarity it seems to be today?
- Scarlet fever in Children
- Wikipedia - Scarlet Fever
- ScienceBlogs – Scarlet fever-past and present by Tara C Smith on 7/6/11
this project is in HistoryLink
