Scarlet fever is an infectious disease.

• Sore throat
• Fever
• Characteristic red rash, produced by the strain of group A strep that produces the erythrogenic toxin

Source: 2013/04/scarlet-fever_4x3.jpg">Baby center

• Usually spread by inhalation
• Clinical features are mostly caused by an erythrogenic toxin, produced by the bacterium Strep pyogenes (group A strep) when it is infected by a certain bacteriophage

• There is no vaccine
• Disease is effectively Tx with antibiotics

Can cause late complications, including:

• Glomerulonephritis
• Endocarditis leading to heart valve disease

• Most commonly affects children
• Before the availability of antibiotics, it was a major cause of death
• Dukes' disease (fourth disease) is thought not to be different from scarlet fever, caused by exotoxin-producing Strep pyogenes. It was never associated with a specific pathogen, and the terminology is no longer in use. However, mysterious rashes in school kids often raises questions whether it is Dukes' disease

• Measles
• Rubella
• Dukes' disease
• Fifth disease
• Roseola infantum