Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staff
If your child has scarlet fever, he or she may experience these common signs and symptoms:
- Red rash that looks like a sunburn and feels like sandpaper
- Red lines (Pastia's lines) in folds of skin around the groin, armpits, elbows, knees and neck
- Strawberry-like red and bumpy appearance of the tongue, often covered with a white coating early in the disease
- Flushed face with paleness around the mouth
- Fever of 101 F (38.3 C) or higher, often with chills
- Very sore and red throat, sometimes with white or yellowish patches
- Difficulty swallowing
- Enlarged glands in the neck (lymph nodes) that are tender to the touch
- Nausea or vomiting
- Headache
The sore throat, enlarged lymph nodes and fever are likely to appear first, while the "scarlet" signs and symptoms of scarlet fever usually appear on the second day of illness. If your child has scarlet fever, the rash and flushing will likely begin on his or her face or neck, later spreading to the chest, trunk, arms and legs. The rash won't appear on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet.
The rash and the redness in the face and tongue usually last about a week. After these signs and symptoms have subsided, the skin affected by the rash often peels.
When to see a doctor
Talk to your doctor if your child has any one of the following signs or symptoms:
- A sore throat with a fever
- A fever of 102 F (38.9 C) or higher — 100.4 F (38 C) rectal temperature for infants younger than 3 months of age
- A sore throat that doesn't get better within 24 to 48 hours
- A sore throat with swollen or tender glands in the neck
- A rash
- Difficulty swallowing or opening his or her mouth all the way
- Arumugam V, et al. Scarlet fever. In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2009. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/119790350-5/802768093/1701/530.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-04134-8..50022-7--cesec71_11163. Accessed Feb. 10, 2009.
- Exanthems and drug eruptions. In: Habif TP. Clinical Dermatology. 4th ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby; 2006. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/119754552-5/802599473/1195/85.html#4-u1.0-B0-323-01319-8..50016-9--cesec21_1617. Accessed Feb. 10, 2009.
- Gerber MA. Group A streptococcus. In: Kliegman RM, et al. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics.18th ed. Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/119754552-5/802599473/1608/526.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2450-7..50184-5--cesec9_4149. Accessed Feb. 10, 2009.
- Streptococcal and enterococcal infections. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec14/ch171/ch171d.html. Accessed Feb. 10, 2009.
- Scarlet fever. American Academy of Family Physicians. http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?dn=familydoctor&lic=44&article_set=22939. American Academy of Family Physicians. Accessed Feb. 10, 2009.
- Fever in infants and children. American Academy of Family Physicians. http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/tools/symptom/504.html. Accessed Feb. 10, 2009.
- Leslie DL, et al. Neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infection: A case-control study among privately insured children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2008;47:1166.
- Group A streptococcal infections. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/streptococcal/default.htm. Accessed Feb. 10, 2009.
- Scarlet fever. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/scarletfever_g.htm. Accessed Feb. 10, 2009.
- PANDAS. Pediatrics & Developmental Neuroscience Branch. http://intramural.nimh.nih.gov/pdn/web.htm. Accessed Feb. 10, 2009.
