To think that scarlet fever is a disease I thought was pretty much eradicated in the U.K.?

[Gide]

Am I being naive? All of a friend’s 3 children are just getting over it (north east) Mum’s hairdresser also had it. I can’t remember ever hearing anyone else having it, bar my mum as a child who is now in her 80s.

My daughter had it age 3, about 12 years ago. Didn't get diagnosed at first - there hadn't been many cases around, I think it was near the beginning of an upswing. Ended up very seriously ill in hospital for more than 2 weeks. Fine now thank goodness.

My understanding of strep-related diseases is that there are groups of genes that come and go in the "prevailing strain" of strep bacteria, over decades. So not only scarlet fever, but strep nephritis and rheumatic fever, wax and wane in prevalence. They all can be managed / prevented by good use of antibiotics, the tricky thing is to balance antibiotic use and overuse as most sore throats will still be viral.

Dd has had scarlet fever twice. The first time, at age 4, she was very unwell, didn't touch any of her toys for over a week, just slept, didn't eat or really communicate. She continued to be fairly under par for months afterwards with a very squeaky Minnie Mouse voice.

Second time was much more short lived and she perked up within a few days of starting antibiotics.

@EBearhug it can be a killer, but I think a lot of people still view it as a run of the mill childhood disease. With the advances in medicine we've gotten used to thinks being less deadly than they once were.

A couple of kids in my DS class have it now. We are in Surrey. A few of the older ones had it at the beginning of September last year. I hadn’t heard of anyone having it for years before this though.

My DD had it when she was two. She has always been prone to viral rashes anyway, but had high temp and what we thought was just tonsillitis, but the GP said nope, scarlet fever. Lasted a few days and was quite uncomfortable for her, but a year later she doesn't even remember it.

I had it a year ago and so did my ds. It sounds like something that doesn't exist in the UK anymore but it does.

I was very surprised when we had it because I thought the same as you op.

It's rife at our nursery just now (Scotland)

A kid at ds’s school had it two years running

Poor thing was off for weeks

Had an email from school here in Dorset about it

my mum was extremely ill with it when she was a young child (she's 70 now). her earliest memory is the ambulance taking her off to hospital and the whole street coming out and people crying, because in those days it really was a killer and I think most of the people there thought she wouldn't be coming back. she had 3 weeks in isolation before recovering.

she also had scarletina a few years later which is, I think, a milder form.

because of my mum talking about it, I've always had it in the back of my mind as something to watch out for. DD got it last year, aged 2. if I hadn't known much about it, I would have just assumed it was a nasty virus. but I googled and she had a completely textbook presentation - sandpaper rash, bright red face, white round the lips, "strawberry" tongue. she started to improve as soon as she got the penicillin but still wiped her out for a good week. not nice at all.

I'm in newcastle and had at least one car of it at my ds school